ACTION ALERT: Save our Vote before May 21st!

The battle for our vote is not going well. According to one of my sources on Capitol Hill, registrars from around the country are waging a 24/7 fight to kill HR 811, Rush Holt’s bill requiring paper trails, audits, and other safeguards for our vote. And as tough as the battle is in the House, an even more difficult battle looms in the Senate.

The bill should be on the House floor for a vote as early as May 21 – so it’s imperative that we act NOW.

If you believe, as I do, that the bill in its updated post-committee form is one of the most important pieces of legislation we can pass at this critical juncture in our country’s history, then I’m asking—no, begging—you to help spread the word. Please do any or all of the following:

1. Call your representative (whose contact info you can find at http://www.house.gov/) and ask them to support HR 811.


2. Call your registrar and put them on notice that they should be supporting our right to a fair vote, not the systems that make their job easier. If the registrar is elected, assure them of your support if they support HR 811 and assure them of your opposition if he or she does not support the bill. Google your county or township’s name along with the word registrar to find their contact info.


3. Post or comment on as many blogs as you have access to about the need for this legislation. Truly, with the lawlessness and reckless abandon the neocons have exhibited in taking away our rights, we should be VERY concerned re what they are trying to do to our vote.


4. Consider the following points:


• Holt’s bill provides that there must be a paper record for auditing and recount purposes. The bill insists that the paper records be audited by a greater percent than states currently have in place, and some states still have no audit provisions at all, so this is a hugely important step forward. The revised bill states that in the event the paper records are somehow compromised, an electronic tally alone cannot determine the outcome of the election. This is another huge step forward, and one that will make registrars try harder to ensure the paper ballots are not compromised.


• DREs (touch screen machines) are no worse than optical scan machines, since it’s the vote counting software, not the recording machine type, that determines whether our vote is counted accurately. Under this bill, DREs would be required to produce a paper record, and even if there’s a problem with the paper records, the electronic tally alone cannot be allowed to determine victory in the mandatory audit.


5. The bill may squeak out of the House, but it faces even greater opposition in the Senate, according to my source. Call your senators (whose contact info you can find at http://www.senate.gov/) and ask them to support HR 811 after is passes the House. (There is no Senate bill number yet – it will be assigned one if/when it passes the House.)


6. Please ask all your friends to do the above as well, and encourage them to pass the information on to their circles of friends. The registrars are highly organized, as are the evoting vendors and others who wish to control our vote in a way that does not safeguard our Democracy.

You are being called to do something very important. Please take a few moments this weekend and next week to do something to save our Democracy while there’s still time.

“This is the true joy in life, being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one. Being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as I live it is my privilege - my *privilege* to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I love. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no brief candle to me; it is a sort of splendid torch which I've got a hold of for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.” - George Bernard Shaw, Irish dramatist & socialist (1856 - 1950)

For further information about the bill, please visit the links on this page: http://holt.house.gov/HR_811.shtml.

Thank you for helping protect what’s left of our Democracy while we’ve still got a shot. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns, and I’ll do my best to find you answers.

Lisa Pease