[Voterescue] URGENT Call to Action TODAY, Tues. 9/3, to STOP H.R. 811!!

[Vickie Karp]

Holt: "It's no longer my bill."

In a town meeting in his New Jersey home district in July, Congressman
Rush Holt made some disturbing statements which leave no doubt that H.R.
811 has become a bill that protects the interests of software
corporations over the rights of citizens. In fact the Holt bill is NOT
the Holt bill anymore! It has become ‘Microsoft 811’!

Mr. Holt: "The bill has been changed since I introduced it. It's no
longer my bill -- well, it's still my bill but it's been marked up in
committee."

Further he added:

"Unfortunately, the committee that made this change heard from Microsoft.
They heard that Voice.

The point is Microsoft did lobby strongly. It wasn't just Microsoft. It
was everybody who—"

Audience question: “Diebold?”

Holt: "No, it was software -- the software industry."

There is something seriously wrong when a U.S. Congressman can say that
an election reform bill he introduced was significantly changed through
the lobbying effort of Microsoft and the software industry....that their
voices were heard! 

Since when was the rule passed in Congress that whoever lobbies hardest
gets to determine the content of U.S. legislation?

When a U.S. Congressman can agree that “the software industry won!” — as
Mr. Holt admitted at the July meeting, we have a critical problem that
threatens the foundation of our Democracy.

This bill is no longer the Holt bill...he said so himself. Clearly, the
bill is now ‘Microsoft 811!’

When Congressman Holt — the election reform leader in Congress — puts his
trust in an audit that many experts say is inadequate, when he advocates
for questionable paper trails linked to secretly programmed machines and
then adds “ I don't care what Microsoft does with their electronics in
there” (as he did), it begins to look like our elections are a game of
Russian roulette.

Where once the bill called for complete openness, full public disclosure
of all software used to count OUR votes, now we have the opposite.
‘Microsoft 811’ enshrines in LAW the right of corporations to privatize
our election through control of programming secrecy, prohibiting public
disclosure of what’s inside OUR voting machines! Only under strict
conditions, people selected for very specific purposes can review the
software, but only after signing non-disclosure agreements. Thus, what
should be a contractual agreement is enshrined in federal law.

When you vote on Election Day you will not know what is happening inside
that electronic machine. Under ‘Microsoft 811’, on Election Night the
results reported will be generated from those secretly programmed
electronic bytes
.from the very machines that top security experts have
labeled “fatally flawed.” Can we trust the results? How will we know?

A few months ago in New York State, during the hectic closing days of the
legislative session, Microsoft along with other software
vendors/lobbyists tried to sneak through provisions to destroy some of
the strictest, hardest won, voting security legislation in the country by
attaching those provisions to another bill which was simply about a minor
change in the primary. Fortunately activists were vigilant and raised an
alarm. Thousands of New Yorkers called their legislators in the next two
days and the vendors’ effort was defeated. Citizens can win if they speak
out.

Now we have a far bigger challenge. Microsoft and other software
companies are trying to get another bill passed that would protect their
rights over the rights of the public. It is up to We the People to say
“No” 
 say it loud and clear till OUR VOICES – not the corporations’ –
are heard and heeded.

There are more problems with ‘Microsoft 811’ than just the assault on the
public’s right to know. See
http://www.votersunite.org/info/hr811Report.pdf . Right now it must be
stopped, and then we must demand that Congress pass a “stripped down”
bill focused on the most vital steps to better secure election 2008. We
MUST BAN DREs and provide states funding to replace them with systems
that use paper ballots, marked by hand or by accessible ballot-marking
devices, and counted by hand or by automatic tabulator. And any time we
use computers to tabulate votes, we must have statistically significant
hand-count audits to check the accuracy of the machines then continually
improve the entire system.with citizen involvement.

People “say” Congress will never ban DREs. But where’s the proof?
Congress’ reason for being is to serve “We the People.” It is up to all
of us to act. So, call your Representative and engage at least ten other
people to call or fax. Call until you are have been heard. Tell
Representatives to vote NO on H.R. 811 and to insist on a real election
reform bill that bans DREs and restores to our elections the requirement
of true separate and independent checks and balances which can be open to
the American people. Only our vote should be secret.

Abraham Lincoln said, “Elections belong to the people. It is their
decision.”

Would that Congress heard these words rather than the words of ‘Microsoft
& Co.’

So now it's time to have our voices heard, and make it OUR decision.

Microsoft 811 will be on the floor for a vote this week. It is vital that
you act now. We are up against some powerful interests but New York
citizens won, so can all of us
if each of us takes action. Stop Microsoft
811! Then Ban DREs!

To get telephone number of your representative or get info:
http://www.congress.org

Mary Ann Gould

Coalition for Voting Integrity

“Voice of the Voters” Radio & Internet

www.voiceofthevoters.org for archived programs
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