[Voterescue] NEWS FLASH!!! Rules Committee Cancels Hearing for HR 811 Today

Fri Sep 7 15:37:42 CDT 2007

VoteRescuers,

  Today's article from BradBlog copied below reports that the House Rules Committee (which decides which bills go to the House Floor and whether or not they may receive amendments) cancelled the hearing for HR 811 that was scheduled for 10:30 this morning.  WHEW!

  However,... let's NOT assume that HR 811 ("Microsoft 811") is on the trash heap just yet.  

  Keep calling and faxing your Representative in the House (to find yours, go to www.congress.org)  and ALL members on the Rules Committee (listed below after the article from BradBlog) and tell them that this bloated bad-for-voters bill should NEVER go to the House floor.  When you contact Rep. Slaughter's office, remember to thank her for keeping our country from "waltzing over a cliff."

  Tell each of them to wait for a bill that is written with REAL voting reform language that includes both:

  ....the ban of ALL electronic voting systems including DRE (Direct Record Electronic) types and optical scanners in all federal elections and...

  ...the use of paper ballots hand counted in public view with proper security protocols and full citizen participation and oversight in all federal elections.

  That's it. plain and simple...it ain't rocket science.

  Karen

  Holt Election Reform Bill in Meltdown...Again
  Republicans 'Chortle' as House Democrats Wrangle in an Attempt to Bring Real Election Reform to a Crumbling System of Democracy...

  Posted By Brad Friedman On 7th September 2007 @ 10:54 

  As we reported [1] from a source late last night, today's scheduled hearing in the House Rules Committee for Rush Holt's Election Reform Bill (HR 811) [2] has been canceled. The same source had also said that if the hearing was canceled, it could mean an "indefinite hold" for the controversial legislation.
  Today, Republicans are predictably enjoying what has been termed as a Democratic "split", by The Hill [3], and a Democratic "revolt," by Politico [4], in the majority-led Rules Committee, once known as "The Speakers Committee" since it's generally the last stop before legislation hits the House Floor. It's also the place where the leadership determines whether amendments will be allowed to be brought for such legislation.
  Of course, what Republicans seem to find most amusing is that Democrats in Congress don't necessarily march in lock-step, as they do. Instead, the Democrats seem to have this crazy idea that in a democracy, there should be actual, responsible debate, care, and attention to details for an Election Reform bill which would have enormous national consequences to every local, state and federal race in the union for decades to come. Go figure.
  "Democrats believe in democracy, unlike that monolith we had before," committee chairwoman Louise Slaughter (D-NY) told The Hill.
  Nonetheless, the Republicans are attempting to make partisan hay from the situation. Minority Leader John Boehner's website [5] described the situation as a "House Committee Meltdown" yesterday. A spokesperson for David Drier (R-CA), the ranking member on the House Committee described the situation as "chaos".
  They're all right. Democracy is chaos. Though the Holt bill has been largely dysfunctional from the get-go as its lead author, Rush Holt (D-NJ) began with a very open process, inviting many voices (including our own) into the bill's drafting process, but then shut down the process in favor of both fear and agenda-driven interests...

  People for the America (PFAW), for example, was allowed to keep a ban on Direct Recording Electronic (DRE, usually touch-screen) voting machines off the table, under the unevidenced notion that there was no support in Congress for such a ban. That, despite virtually every computer scientist and voting system expert in the world arguing that DREs cannot be used safely --- with or without a so-called "paper trail" --- in American democracy. Recent calls for a DRE ban from members of Congress [6] and even the New York Times [7] would counter that notion. But, of course, PFAW actually prefers DREs to paper-ballot systems as we've tried to alert folks in the past [8].
  Corporate behemoth, Microsoft, did the dirty work on behalf of the the voting machine vendors, and leveraged their considerable lobbying power to shut down one of the best provisions in the originally introduced bill which would have required full disclosure, to any member of the pubic, of the currently-secret source-code which runs the machinery of our democracy. Their lobbying forced a change to keep the source-code a trade secret, available only to so-called "experts" and only in the event of a post-Election challenge. Republicans watching out for corporate interests, rather than government of the people, by the people and for the people, were undoubtedly pleased.
  The overhaul to the source-code provisions led even Holt to decry the affect of Microsoft [9] on the bill as it was amended months ago in the House Administration Committee. "Unfortunately, the committee that made this change heard from Microsoft. They heard that voice...It wasn't just Microsoft...it was software --- the software industry."
  Previously, Holt's legislative aide on the bill, Michelle Mulder, wrote to [10] a large group of Election Integrity advocates, including NYU's Media Professor and author, Mark Crispin Miller, declaring "you can take up your concerns with Microsoft and others in the proprietary software industry."
  Mulder, however, went on to blame Election Integrity advocates --- presumably including The BRAD BLOG [11] --- who had opposed the bill as written on a number of grounds. She said it was our fault that one of the original bill's best provisions was watered down. "During Committee proceedings they [Microsoft] lobbied very heavily against the language that was in the bill as introduced," Mulder wrote, "and none of you lobbied in favor of the language that was in the bill as introduced, and thus, the software industry won. It's very simple, really."
  Mulder failed to note that many in the Election Integrity community --- the largest and most powerful groups, in fact --- had been in favor of the bill and had lobbied strongly for it. Others in the community had worked hard to amend it to include a number of "Essential Revisions" [12] deemed imperative for such a monumentally important piece of legislation.
  Ultimately, some EI advocates would go on to describe the bill as "Microsoft 811" and Democratic members of the Rules Committee this week had concerns that the bill either went too far, or didn't go far enough.
  But it was the powerful state elections officials who may have ruled the day. As usual, they want no Federal interference in "their" elections, and --- more notably --- don't wish to have any mandates placed on them for either the type of voting machinery they choose to use or the way in which they use it.
  Most such officials around the country continue to buy into the voting machine company propaganda that their voting systems are safe for use any way they decide to use them. That, despite their having been found vulnerable to hacking time and again, prone to failure time and again, and completely lacking in transparency to the public for whom confidence in elections and the right to vote --- and have that vote counted accurately --- is the very bedrock of democracy.
  The Democrats then, for the most part, ever fearful of taking bold measures, even when in their heart they know it's the right thing to do, buckled to all of the above. And so we find ourselves where we are today. 
  Where will it all go from here? Stay tuned. Your guess is as good as ours at the moment. But there's one thing we believe to be the case no matter what happens with this particular bill. Advocates of the Holt bill have long argued in its favor by admitting that it's flawed, but stating (as fact) that either the Holt bill gets passed, or nothing will get passed. That false dichotomy, as we reported many moons ago [13], is and was little more than a desperate, divisive fear-tactic and a canard.
  If HR 811 dies in committee, or even on the floor of the House, should it ever get there, the alternative is not "nothing," as the nearly-universal belief that our system of democracy is dysfunctional and crumbling is more present now than ever. Both state legislation --- as well as new, so-far un-introduced federal legislation --- will likely fill the vacuum should the Holt bill find its way into the dust bin of history.
  As we've said, stay tuned... 

---------------------------------
    Article printed from The BRAD BLOG: http://www.bradblog.com
  URL to article: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5042
  URLs in this post:
[1] we reported: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5041
[2] Rush Holt's Election Reform Bill (HR 811): http://www.BradBlog.com
[3] by The Hill: http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/dems-split-over-house-voting-rules-spurs-cho
rtles-from-gop-2007-09-07.html
[4] by Politico: http://www.politico.com/blogs/thecrypt/0907/Rules_Democrats_revolt_on_electronic
_voting_bill.html
[5] John Boehner's website: http://republicanleader.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=73326
[6] members of Congress: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5036
[7] the New York Times: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5037
[8] alert folks in the past: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4394
[9] decry the affect of Microsoft: http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_mary_ann_070903__microsoft_811__and_.htm
[10] wrote to: http://markcrispinmiller.blogspot.com/2007/07/illuminating-piece-of-work.html
[11] The BRAD BLOG: http://www.BradBlog.com
[12] "Essential Revisions": http://www.votersunite.org/info/HR811EssentialRevisions.htm
[13] we reported many moons ago: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4163

    U.S. House Committee on Rules:
Main Number: 202-225-9091

  Democrats:
  LOUISE McINTOSH SLAUGHTER (NY) - CHAIRWOMAN
http://www.louise.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=39&Itemid=84
Phone: (202) 225-3615
Fax: (202) 225-7822

  JAMES P. McGOVERN (MA)
http://mcgovern.house.gov/?sectionid=2&sectiontree=2
Phone: (202) 225-6101
Fax: (202) 225-5759

  ALCEE L. HASTINGS (FL)
http://www.alceehastings.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=60&Itemid=30
Tel: (202) 225-1313
Fax: (202) 225-1171

  DORIS O. MATSUI (CA)
Phone: (202) 225-7163
Fax: (202) 225-0566

  DENNIS CARDOZA, (CA)
http://www.house.gov/cardoza/biography.shtml
Phone: (202) 225-6131
Fax: 202-225-0819
800-356-6424

  PETER WELCH, (VT)
http://www.welch.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=23&Itemid=61
Phone:(202) 225-4115

  KATHY CASTOR (FL)
Phone: (202)225-3376
Fax: (202)225-5652

  MICHAEL ARCURI (NY)
Phone: 202-225-3665
Fax: 202-225-1891

  BETTY SUTTON (OH)
Phone: (202) 225-3401
Fax: (202) 225-2266

  Republicans:

  DAVID DREIER (CA) - Ranking Minority Member
Office (202) 225-2305
Fax (202) 225-7018

  LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART (FL)
Phone: (202) 225-4211

  DOC HASTINGS (WA)
Phone: (202) 225-5816
Fax: (202) 225-3251

  PETE SESSIONS (TX)
(202) 225-2231
(202) 225-5878 fax 

    House Leadership:
  NANCY PELOSI (D-CA)
Phone: (202) 225-4965
Fax: (202) 225-4188

  STENY HOYER (D-MD)
Phone: (202) 225-4131
Fax: (202) 225-4300

Karen Renick
  Director, VoteRescue
  www.VoteRescue.org
  karen at voterescue.org

  "Let the ballot boxes speak, so that the souls can be quiet."   
         ~sign on a fence near the Federal Electoral Tribunal in Mexico City
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