California faxes Congress in opposition to the Holt Bill

Filed under: General — shadow @ 9:00 pm

March 29, 2007

To: U.S. House of Representatives Committee on House Administration
Re: Amending HR. 811, Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act
From: Judy Alter, Director of Protect California Ballots

Dear Committee Members:

Please amend HR. 811.

1. Make the EAC a Legislative Branch Commission, not an Executive Branch Commission where the president could cancel elections.

2. Make audits meaningful by requiring election officials to hand count entire contests if any anomalies are found. Conduct these audits at the precincts to prevent the FIRST COUNT from remaining inaccurate.

3. Consider outlawing DREs: direct electronic recording devices, because:

DEMOCRATIC ELECTIONS REQUIRE THAT VOTES GET COUNTED IN PUBLIC.

NO COUNT DONE ON SOFTWARE IS PUBLIC.

PLEASE KEEP OUR ELECTIONS DEMOCRATIC!

Software that is proprietary for counting votes is absurd. Counting votes only requires ADDITION. Addition is not secret, proprietary.

4. The newly required equipment in this bill is a huge and unreasonable unfunded mandate for states and counties. Full Story