[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Sign-in] [Mail] [Setup] [Help]
Status: Not Logged In; Sign In
|
(s)Elections See other (s)Elections Articles Title: Federal Ban On Touch Screen Voting May Be Added To Holt Bill An amendment to either ban or restrict the use of Direct Recording Electronic (DRE, usually touch-screen) voting systems may be added to Rep. Rush Holt's (D-NJ) Election Reform Bill by California Congresswoman Susan Davis today, The BRAD BLOG can now confirm. After learning of the possibility early this morning, we have now confirmed with Davis's office that she is mulling such an amendment to present to the House Rules Committee, which is set to meet this afternoon at 3pm ET to determine which amendments will be allowed for debate on Holt's controversial HR 811 election bill. The legislation is currently scheduled to come up for debate on the House Floor as soon as it's passed out of the Rules Committee. The committee will decide whether or not to allow amendments to the bill at all once it's on the House floor. The BRAD BLOG has learned that the committee essentially has three options in that regard. They can move the bill forward with a "Closed Rule," meaning no amendments are allowed on the bill; a "Restricted Rule", meaning only certain amendments will be allowed for debate, or an "Open Rule," which would allow any amendment to be brought to the bill while it's on the House floor. The phone and fax numbers for members of the Rules Committee are posted below, along with the contact information for House Leaders Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer, who would be instrumental in allowing such an amendment to be brought. At this hour, Davis's office is considering language for such an amendment, conferring with legal authorities and gauging potential support from colleagues. They may be considering restrictions on DRE usage, rather than a complete ban, along the lines of what California's Secretary of State Debra Bowen implemented recently after her independent "Top-to-Bottom Review" found severe vulnerabilities in all of the states certified touch-screen voting systems. After the landmark study, carried out by the University of California, Bowen implemented restrictions on DRE systems made by Diebold, Sequoia Voting Systems, and other major manufacturers. Only one DRE per polling place will be allowed in California's 2008 elections in order to marginally meet federal accessibility requirements for disabled voters. Bowen's restrictions also allow for DRE use in Early Voting, though all such systems must have 100% of their "Voter Verified Paper Audit Trails" (VVPATs) manually counted. Bowen's office has told The BRAD BLOG they cannot yet comment on the amendment, but support from the CA SoS, we have been told, could be crucial to it moving forward. We will update this article with any comments from Bowen's office as the day progresses. Holt's office, along with their major supporter People for the American Way (PFAW), have long been against any such ban or restrictions on the use of DREs. Over the past several months, however, our reporting has indicated that some of the other major supporters of HR 811 --- such as http://MoveOn.org, Common Cause, Verified Voting, and VoteTrustUSA --- would not oppose such a ban/restriction on DRE voting systems. Some of those groups, in fact, have indicated they would support such an amendment if it were brought to the Holt bill. UPDATE: MoveOn, Verified Voting and VoteTrustUSA have now endorsed the Davis amendment. See end of article for details. The BRAD BLOG would also welcome such a ban/restriction on unreliable, vulnerable DRE systems, as their continued use, as allowed by the Holt bill, has been one of our major objections to HR 811. (FULL DISCLOSURE: We worked on the bill with its authors prior to its introduction this year, though several provisions in the bill, most notable the failure to ban DREs, has kept us from endorsing it as currently written.) We will continue to follow this story as it develops today, and will update this article as needed... UPDATE 2:55pm ET: Davis' office now confirms they will bring such an amendment if allowed by the Rules Comm and by Leadership! UPDATE 3:50pm ET: http://MoveOn.org, one of the Holt bill's largest supporters --- and of whom we were critical in our article yesterday for their misleading email in support of the bill as currently written --- has just notified The BRAD BLOG that they support the Davis amendment to restrict DRE usage in the Holt bill. UPDATE 4:03pm ET: The BRAD BLOG can now also confirm that both Verified Voting and VoteTrustUSA --- two other ardent supporters of the Holt bill as currently written --- now endorse the Davis amendment as well.
Poster Comment: Not good for Israel, not good for Hillary. Israel-first Hoyer will most likely head the kill bill committee.
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: Eoghan (#0)
bump
Ron Paul for President - Join a Ron Paul Meetup group today!
|
||
|
[Home]
[Headlines]
[Latest Articles]
[Latest Comments]
[Post]
[Sign-in]
[Mail]
[Setup]
[Help]
|
||