[CFVI News] Verified Voting's analysis of Voting Bills before the US House and Senate.

[<meliom@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear CFVI Member:

Below is a very good summary of Bills before the US House and Senate with analysis by Verified Voting. The Clinton Bill has not yet been evaluated.

 PAPER BALLOT LEGISLATION IN A NUTSHELL

 A lot of Federal legislation has been introduced in the last few weeks  on voter verification and other voting issues. We thought it would be  helpful to boil down the choices and make clear where we stand on the  various bills.  For more details and links to the bill  texts, please see our legislation page: http://verifiedvoting.org/leg

 Our opinions are based on the technical merits of the bills.  It's not  clear at this point how the politics will work out.  We will monitor what's happening on Capitol Hill and keep you posted as the situation evolves (please keeping checking our web page!)
 Meanwhile, we hope you will visit our alerts page to take action, if  you have not already done so, and visit often to see if there are new actions to take.

 BILLS WE SUPPORT

 H.R. 550, the "Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of  2005" was introduced by Rep. Holt (NJ).  In only two weeks, it has over 100 cosponsors.  H.R.  550 is the "gold standard" of verified voting bills.  It not only requires voter-verified paper ballots (VVPB) but also mandatory manual audits, requires increased security, prohibits undisclosed software, and more.  It was carefully written after extensive consultation with many experts.  VerifiedVoting.org supports H.R. 550 in the strongest possible terms and encourages all members of the House to become cosponsors.

 The "Voting Integrity and Verification Act of 2005" (VIVA 2005), was  introduced by Sen. Ensign (NV) as S. 330 in the Senate and by Rep. Gibbons (NV) as H.R. 704 in the House.  These bills are narrowly focussed on voter-verified paper ballots.  They don't do everything we want, but they do what they do very well. We support these bills and encourage all members of Congress to cosponsor them (as well as H.R. 550).

 BILLS WE DO NOT SUPPORT

 S.17, the "Voting Opportunity and Technology Enhancement Rights Act of  2005" (or VOTER Act of 2005), was introduced by Sen. Dodd (CT).  This bill addresses a wide range of election reforms.  In particular, it requires voter-verified ballots -- but a PAPER ballot is one of four options.  Unfortunately, these provisions are weak, vague, and do not take effect until 2009.  We cannot support the voter verification provisions of this bill in their current form.

 H.R. 533, by Rep. John Conyers (MI), has the same name as S. 17, even  though it is not the exactly the same bill. Nevertheless, the VVPB provisions of this bill are also fatally flawed.  We cannot support this bill in its current form. H.R. 278, the "Know Your Vote Counts Act of 2005", was introduced by Rep. Steve King of Iowa.  This fails to give the VVPB precedence in  case of machine vs. paper count discrepancies. We do not support it, because we feel that it would be ineffective and distract from efforts to pass more meaningful legislation.

 BREAKING NEWS

 Today,
 Senator Clinton (NY) introduced the "Count Every Vote Act of 2005" as  S. 450.  At the same time, Rep.  Stephanie Tubbs Jones (OH) introduced  companion legislation in the House.  Both cover a wide range of electoral reforms.  We are reviewing these (very long) bills and will post our analysis of them on our Legislation web page soon.


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Thank you,

Michael David Melio
Westminster, CO
(303)530-5215

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