Federal Legislation

By U.S. Representative Rush Holt Media Release   Legislation Would Reimburse States for Conducting Audits

U.S. Rep Rush Holt (D-NJ) today introduced legislation to encourage states to conduct hand-counted audits for the 2008 elections. The bill is a version of emergency legislation that Holt offered earlier this year, but that House Republicans blocked from passage.

The New York Times  

by Christopher Drew, The New York Times
 

Democrats in Congress who are trying to redesign the nation’s voting system generally share the same goals: an affordable, easy-to-use system with durable paper ballots that can be used by the disabled without help from poll workers.

By Senator Feinstein Press Release

Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Christopher Dodd (D-CT) have introduced legislation to help ensure the accuracy of vote counts in federal elections and institute important new reforms in the administration of elections. Other cosponsors include Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), Barack Obama (D-IL), Patrick J. Leahy (D-VT), Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA), Daniel K. Inouye (D-HI), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), and Bernard Sanders (I-VT).

By Warren Stewart, VoteTrustUSA

Congress Takes Important Step Towards Establishing Safeguards on the Use of Electronic Voting Systems

by David L. Dill, VerifiedVoting.org  

Four years ago, when I began publicly opposing paperless electronic voting, passing a Federal law to require voter-verified paper records (VVPRs) seemed an impossible dream. Rep. Rush Holt introduced such a bill in 2003, and another in 2005, but both bills languished in committee until the clock ran out.

The hearings were held on March 20, 2007 at 2 p.m. by the Elections Subcommittee (chaired by Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California) of the Committee on House Administration (chaired by Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald of California) of the U.S. Congress. The hearings took place in Room 1310 of the Longworth House Office Building and were open to the public.

Testimony highlights attached below:

Our Election System Is Broken. Can the New Congress Fix It?

By Warren Stewart, Washington Spectator

By Cameron W. Barr, Washington Post Staff Writer

A federal panel voted yesterday to begin developing a national standard that could result in the gradual phasing out of the paperless electronic voting machines in use across the Washington region and in many parts of the country.

The "next generation" of voting systems should have an independent means of verifying election results, the Technical Guidelines Development Committee said. The standard would have to be adopted by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.

The new Carter-Baker Commission report acknowledges that Americas electoral system is out of control

By ANDREW GUMBEL, Los Angeles City Beat

This is a hell of time to try to start a national conversation on election reform. Whole chunks of the country are disappearing under the strain of severe weather and official incompetence, the federal government is busy bankrupting itself to cover its own rear end, the war in Iraq is as intractable as ever, and the next significant elections are not until the mid-terms in November 2006.