A Flawed US Election Reform Bill
Front Paged on slashdot:
http://slashdot.org/
Please do NOT let this URGENT ACTION ALERT scroll by, as an earlier alert did.
As heard today on Thom Hartmann's Air America Radio show.
Action Alert! Here's how you can just say "NO!" to HR 811 and why.
call Nancy Pelosi's office at (202) 225-4965
and demand that Pelosi amend the bill to include a ban on DRE voting systems or otherwise vote against the bill.
BradBlog asks people to call Speaker Pelosi's office to voice opposition to HR 811: People for the American Way (PFAW) Continues Dishonest Lobbying Campaign for Holt Election Bill
We shouldn't outsource our elections to private, for profit corporations which use secret, proprietary software. Period.
http://www.bradblog.com/
Pass this on to anyone who cares about the direction our country is heading. It starts with the ballot box. *
More below the fold.....with Links!
One of the fathers of the Radical Right Wing Movement said:
"I don't want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of the people. They never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down."
--— Paul Weyrich, at a 1980 training session for 15,000 conservative preachers in Dallas.
He's quoted on the website of People for the American Way. Usually, PFAW does good work, but they aren't up-to-speed about Election Reform and the extreme danger to democracy which the latest version of NJ Rep. Rush Holt's "Election Reform" bill (HR 811) will permit: secret software in computerized voting machines. PFAW is dead wrong this time!
From the Dept. of Fool Me Once (only):
http://www.markcrispinmiller.blogspo...
Your "Just-say-NO-to-HR-811" kit!
From Joan Brunwasser *:
SNIPPETS:
Organizations ordinarily aligned with the common good have pulled out all the stops to ram this legislation through. Unless - and maybe even though - we make a LOT of noise, this bill will become law and our elections will take more irrevocable steps away from democracy.
If you doubt this, read Miller's expose below complete with quotes from Holt and his legislative aide, Michelle Mulder as well as an action alert put out by VoteRescue.
Here's how you call (no time to write) your Congressional Rep.: Contacting the Congress
http://www.visi.com/...
Please do it tonight or tomorrow.
Exposé: Holt bill was revised by Microsoft, Diebold and ES&S by Mark Crispin Miller
http://www.opednews.com/...
SNIPPETS:
As for Holt himself, there may well be a second reason for his long refusal to rethink his faith in e-voting machines. . . . .it just so happens that a company called Avante International appears to be headquartered in Holt's district, and that Avante is positioned to make money if Holt's bill should pass and the machines should all be fitted out with "paper trails."
SNIP
[Holt doesn't believe there was GOP fraud in previous elections]...If he knew about the vast extent of BushCo's fraud, he wouldn't have come up with such a porous bill; and the same goes for most, if not all, of HR 811's remaining supporters. If they had studied all the evidence of fraud since BushCo came to power, they would be far less certain that this bill could make much difference.
SNIP
[Rush Holt's] various reforms would not prevent such further theft. If they did, you can be sure the Busheviks themselves would be attacking him and HR 811 with their usual ferocity. That they aren't doing so should make quite clear that they don't fear his bill, because it poses no real threat to their ongoing efforts to subvert American democracy.
Let's Phrase it Another Way:
Good Quick Explanation and Talking Points:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_vickie_k_070710_ask_your_rep_to_vote.htm
SNIPPET:
"Kill Bill H.R. 811" and support the reintroduction of the Paper Ballot Act of 2006 (formerly H.R. 6200). (For contact information for your representatives, see: www.congress.org )
The new version of H.R. 6200 (to be re-introduced soon by Rep. Dennis Kucinich with a new bill number) will require paper ballots, hand-counted at the precinct level for all federal elections by the 2008 presidential election. It will also guarantee transparent elections in which "citizens are in control", overseeing and participating in the total elections process.
The new H.R. 6200 will DEMONSTRATE A GOVERNMENT OF, FOR AND BY THE PEOPLE!
Repeat:
Do NOT let Congress rush Rush Holt's bill through.....because...it's not what people think it is...... it has revisions written by Microsoft, Diebold, and ES&S which will continue to allow for secret vote counting.
Insist on secret ballots and PUBLIC counting--NO to privatizing our election systems and NO to private, proprietary election systems.
Be aware of "the Frank Luntz-like deceptions" being circulated by People for the American Way [PFAW ].
Earlier today, scrolled away too fast:
http://www.dailykos.com/...