Media in Trouble: All the news thats UNfit to print!: Republicans blocking voting rights

Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Republicans blocking voting rights

Below is a post I borrowed from Blanton and Ashton's. Basically, Congressman Rush Holt (D-NJ) has a bill that is cosponsored by 159 congressman, and the Repugnicans don't think it worthy of floor action. HR 550 guarantees voter verified paper trails on all voting machines, and also implements mandatory random audits of every election in every county etc... Basically the bill covers all the voting irregularities we saw in Ohio '04 and Florida 2000, and basically every election going forward where you vote into a machine and don't know what the hell the machine does with your vote.

When you are done here, if you have a blog, go ahead and join the blogswarm. When you are done blogging it, go to this Daily Kos diary and reccomend and link to your post.

So... Here is all the info:

Between the idea

And the reality

Between the motion

And the act

Falls the Shadow

-The Hollow Men by T.S. Eliot

SIGN THE PETITION TODAY!

Another election has passed without any action by Congress to protect our votes. Time after time, in state after state, electronic voting machines are proving to be extremely unreliable, with voting shortfalls showing up across the country. In addition, as documented numerous times by sites like BlackBoxVoting.org, electronic voting machines have proven easy to hack into and the results can be changed. There is an unquestionable need for verifying our votes.

A solution to the problem of verified voting was introduced in the House of Representatives last February as House Resolution 550. That solution is a complete answer to the problem and is so thorough that it now has 159 co-sponsors, both Democrats and Republicans, and has been endorsed by the bi-partisan Carter-Baker Commission on Federal Election Reform. For no good reason, the bill is stalled in the House Administration Committee, which is chaired by Robert Wilson Ney (OH-18th).

House Resolution 550, titled the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act, "amends the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require a voter-verified permanent paper record or hard copy under title III of such Act, and for other purposes" (as described by the bill summary at thomas.loc.gov). Electronic voting machines currently leave no paper trail and there is now way to confirm or recount votes. At the same time, these voting machines have become notorious for their security problems. H.R. 550 addresses those problems; the security issues with these voting machines would become irrelevant if you could perform hand recounts.

Verified voting is not a partisan issue. This is about making sure that everyone's vote is counted and can be verified. This cuts across all lines and divisions because this is about ensuring the legitimacy of our democracy.

Today I and many hundred of my fellow web loggers are urging our readers to go to Congressman Holt's web site and sign his petition in support of H.R. 550. Everyone, left, right, and middle, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, or whatever, can join this effort and let Congress know that we want all of our votes to be counted.

Here is a list of House Administration Committee Members (their names are linked to their web contact page, so you can click the name and write an email, but you can only write to the Representative you live in his or her district...you will need your nine-digit zip code, which you can find out here):