Vote Early, Vote Often
During the last session of Congress, Rush Holt (D-NJ) introduced what was then H.R. 550, a bill to require a voter-verified paper trail and other good things. Despite getting a total of 220 co-sponsors, the bill merely got a phony hearing on the last day of the session.
Well, he's back, and tougher than ever.
H.R. 811 basically contains all the requirements of the old bill, and adds some tougher language regarding the type, durability, and official nature of the voter-verified paper records.
This bill already has 179 (update: 182, and Rangel is coming on board) co-sponsors. New Yorkers missing:
02 D -- Steve Israel
03 R -- Peter King
06 D -- Greg Meeks
11 D -- Yvette Clarke (rookie!)
12 D -- Nydia Velázquez (my own rep -- I'll be calling in the morning)
13 R -- Vito Fossella
15 D -- Charles Rangel (go figure!)
23 R -- John McHugh
24 D -- Michael Arcuri (another rookie)
25 R -- James Walsh
26 R -- Tom Reynolds
Feel free to call anyone you wish to get them on board. Senator Feinstein (D-CA) will sponsor the bill in the Senate when the time is right.
One extra note:
I spent a week in D.C. with Stephanie Low last June, lobbying for the old bill. Among those we lobbied were Sue Kelly (R-NY), Richard Pombo (R-CA), Judy Biggert (R-IL), Melissa Hart (R-PA), and Mark Kennedy (R-MN), all of whom are no longer in the House. (We also lobbied Sherwood Boehlert, who had already announced his retirement, so I don't claim credit for defeating him.)
Clarke
Clarke seems to be keeping an excessively low profile!
I hope the fast pace of Congress this year is to blame for her not putting her name on more bills. This in particular is one she has a good record on, so I hope she will soon be on board.
Clarke, et. al.
There are four NY rookies in the House (Arcuri, Clarke, Gillibrand, Hall), and not one of them has sponsored any legislation yet.
A sampling of other House rookies shows this to be the general rule. Apparently, there's a lot of work putting together a staff and getting used to the DC ways, so it takes time to get up to speed.
Meanwhile, feel free to call her office (202-225-6231) to recommend she co-sponsor this bill.
Perhaps
But I have seen Loebsack and Ellison's names crop up as co-sponsors. They are rookies as well. Maybe they are just quicker to establish a sense of leadership?
Bandwagon Warning: This bill is not what it appears to be
The paper "ballots" are never counted first or on Election Night.
In states with machine recounts, the paper ballots made for the touch screens won't be counted at all, since Holt says itself it won't apply if automatic recounts are triggered.
The audits of 3% are hardly a substitute for the 100% secret vote counting that goes on in corporate hard drives.
The courts will have no trouble calling a 3% audit that changes the results of that 3% a partial recount -- exactly what was unconstitutional when Gore asked for it in 2000 in Bush v. Gore.
The audits, the so-called "ballots" that aren't ballots, the unfunded mandates in this bill, are all tradeoffs for the totally untrustable, unreliable and 100% secret vote counting that takes place on electronic hard drives, for which all forms of public oversight are, incidentally, totally eliminated. Electronic voting must go.
That a tiny few consider that position unreasonable or unachievable is like someone sticking their hand down your pocket and then negotiating to take it out --- but only HALF way. We need FULL public oversight. VOters need to FULLY see their Ballot. EVERY BALLOT must count. The government can not watchdog itself or audit itself any more than Enron can.
Any bill that continues to eliminate the public and the voter from a fundamental role in elections (just as the role is fundamental in juries) is totally flawed and unacceptable. How can we the people, in charge of any real democracy, be eliminated from oversight in elections?