The Great Lakes Zephyr - Wind Energy & Hydrogen Journal

Alert! Support Verified Voting Bill! (From GRACE)

Sen. Graham has introduced Verified Voting Bill S. 1980 in the Senate, a companion bill to Rep. Rush Holt's bill, HR 2239 in the House. Both seek to put an electoral system into place in which Americans can have full confidence. All voting systems would have to meet these requirements in time for the November 2004 election. The bills would:
* Require computer voting systems to produce a paper record/hard copy;
* Require that all voting systems produce voter-verified paper records for use in manual audits;
* Ban the use of undisclosed software and wireless communication devices in voting systems;
* Require mandatory surprise recounts in .5 percent of both domestic and overseas jurisdictions.

If we don't pass these bills, the 2004 election could be compromised. According to computer experts, there may be serious counting errors and/or the computerized polling machines could be hacked and we would have no way of knowing it.
(http://www.verifiedvoting.org/intro_to_dre_flaws.asp).

There are two other voting bills before the Senate, one co-sponsored by Sen. Hillary Clinton, and the other by Sen. Barbara Boxer. Neither will give us a verifiable paper-trail by November, as S.1980 would!

H.R.2239 is not likely to see much progress until the Representatives know which bill will emerge in the Senate. As a result, it is crucial to get co-sponsors immediately for S.1980, Graham's companion bill in the Senate. So far Schumer (NY) and Nelson (Fl) have co-sponsored it. (VerifiedVoting.org)


WHAT YOU CAN DO:

(1) Contact your Senators and encourage them to co-sponsor with Graham's bill, S.1980. Click here for guidelines and toll free number: http://tinyurl.com/2xtpa.

(3) Please co-sign an "Open Letter to the House Administration Committee" [where HR2239 is now stuck], urging the committee to release H.R.2239 to the floor and support its passage, by March 8th. The letter can be read at: http://verifiedvoting.org/article.asp?id=882
and then endorsed at: http://verifiedvoting.org/endorse_checkmail.asp.

(4) Call Senators Boxer and Clinton (even non-constituents, since this is a national issue---but let them know if you are a constituent) to encourage them to co-sponsor ASAP with Graham, rather than push their own bills. Don't forget to be polite and thank them for their interest in verified voting, but tell them that only Graham's bill will give us a paper trail by November , thereby safeguarding our trust in the upcoming elections and the electoral process.
Senator Boxer: (202) 224-3553/ Fax (415) 956-6701
Senator Clinton: (202) 224-4451/ Fax (202) 228-0282

(5) Call House Minority Leader Pelosi (1 800-839-5276) and ask her to co-sponsor H.R.2239, which has been endorsed by the Democratic National Committee and co-sponsored by 125 other House members. Ask her to encourage other Democrats to do the same.

(6) Tell news executives today that the problem of e-voting is a story they can't ignore. Click on http://www.mediafordemocracy.us/campaign/evote for a pre-written email (but try to use your own words).

(7) Send an e-mail to head of League of Women's Voters to urge them to support paper trail (KMaxwell@LWV.Org). At present she doesn't think this is necessary. For talking points, see http://www.leagueissues.org/lwvqa.html If you are a member of the League, please also sign a petition at: http://www.leagueissues.org/#Part3

(5) Tell the following civil rights organizations to support HR. 2239 and S. 1980:
Leadership Council on Civil Rights: http://www.civilrights.org/about/contact_us/#contact ;

Common Cause: grassroots@commoncause.org ; 202-833-1200; 800-926-1064 http://www.commoncause.org/forms/contactus.htm ;

ACLU's voting rights division: 404-523-2721. See comment page at: http://www.aclu.org/feedback/feedback.cfm ;

People for the American Way: 202-467-4999 or 800-326-7329; http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=162;
Email at: pfaw@pfaw.org

(7) Send a quick, free pre-written fax to Senators about S.1980 (which you can modify) at:
http://action.eff.org/action/index.asp?step=2&item=2848

(8) Send a quick, free pre-written fax to your Representatives about HR. 2239 (which you can modify) at:
http://action.eff.org/action/index.asp?step=2&item=2821

(9) Call House Members at a toll free number:
http://www.verifiedvoting.org/resources/hr2239_volunteers/hr2239_effort.asp

(10) For other Actions click here:
http://www.verifiedvoting.org/volunteers/


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For more Democracy & Voting action alerts, go to: http://www.gracepublicfund.org/democracy/