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Post by specuelatin on Apr 10, 2006 20:47:23 GMT -5
Let's coordinate our efforts, please ask your friends to participate, too. So important to support this effort. tinyurl.com/qswt9www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/healthfreedomusa/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=3291 spec Copy: Dear House Administration Committee Member:
I am writing to you at the urging of the Natural Solutions Foundation since passing HR 550 is essential to preserving our freedom and the crucial relevance of the voting process.
On September 19, 2005, the Commission on Federal Election Reform co-chaired by President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker issued its Final Report. The Report, among other things, called on Congress to enact legislation requiring both a voter verified paper ballot of every vote and routine random audits to check the accuracy of electronic voting.
Voting integrity activists who have been championing this cause for several years are pleased that the Commission confirmed the need for this critical security measure. However, the report also recommends that the status of the voter verified paper ballot should be determined by states rather than mandated as the ballot of record nationwide. This means that any individual state can decide to disregard the only record that the voter has confirmed in favor of the record inside the electronic machine and make the voter verified paper ballot a meaningless and expensive placebo. In addition, the report suggests that pre-election machine "audits" may also be acceptable. Such audits would constitute simply another pre-election machine test, and should not be confused with meaningful independent audits of actual election results.
Rep. Rush Holt's Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act (HR 550) will, however, mandate an effective and meaningful voter-verified paper record and independent audit requirements. It already has the bipartisan support of 1/3 of the House of Representatives, and has been endorsed by VoteTrustUSA and VerifiedVoting.org as the "gold standard" in verifiability legislation. Not only would it mandate a voter verified paper record for every vote cast, it would also:
(1) establish a mandatory uniform national standard that states that the voter verified paper ballot -- the only record verified by the voter rather than the voting machine -- is the vote of record in the case of any inconsistency with electronic records;
(2) provide Federal funding to pay for implementation of voter verified paper balloting;
(3) require a percentage of mandatory manual (by hand count) random audits of actual election results in every state, and in each county, for every Federal election;
(4) prohibit the use at any time of undisclosed software, wireless communication devices, and internet connections in voting machines;
(5) require full implementation by 2006; and
(6) protect the accessibility mandates of the Help America Vote Act.
The language in this bill was carefully written with input from computer scientists, disabilities organizations, and election reform advocates. It should be passed as written and in time to protect the 2006 elections.
There are many politically contentious election reform issues mentioned in the report but making sure that votes are counted accurately is not one of them. Elections are the foundation of a representative democracy, and representative democracy lives or dies based on the integrity of its elections. HR 550 will help restore voters' confidence and ensure the accuracy and integrity of America's elections.
I urge you to pass HR 550 as written immediately. As a concerned voter it is imperative to me that the meaning of my vote not be lost since that alone safeguards the essential freedoms of the United States. I look to your leadership and will be watching to see how well you protect my essential rights in this matter. Thank you for your leadership on this issue.
Yours in health and freedom,
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Post by slinker on Apr 22, 2006 2:50:12 GMT -5
109TH CONGRESS H. R. 550 1ST SESSION
To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require a voter-verified permanent paper record or hard copy under title III of such Act, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FEBRUARY 2, 2005 Mr. HOLT (for himself, Mr. CONYERS, Mr. DICKS, Ms. ESHOO, Mr. FARR, Mr. HASTINGS of Florida, Mrs. JONES of Ohio, Mr. KIND, Mr. LANTOS, Ms. LEE, Mrs. MALONEY, Mr. MCDERMOTT, Mr. MCGOVERN, Mr. MORAN of Virginia, Mr. MOORE of Kansas, Mr. NADLER, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. VAN HOLLEN, Mr. WEXLER, Ms. WOOLSEY, Mrs. CAPPS, Mr. TOM DAVIS of Virginia, Mr. OBERSTAR, Mr. PAYNE, Mr. SCOTT of Virginia, Mr. SHERMAN, Mr. BAIRD, Mr. ALLEN, Ms. BALD- WIN, Mr. KUCINICH, Ms. LORETTA SANCHEZ of California, Mr. DEFAZIO, Mr. WU, Ms. KILPATRICK of Michigan, Ms. KAPTUR, Mr. COLE of Oklahoma, Mr. PRICE of North Carolina, Mr. WAXMAN, Mr. SABO, Mr. COOPER, Mr. BERMAN, Mr. ABERCROMBIE, Mr. HINCHEY, Mr. FILNER, Mr. SCHIFF, Mr. MOLLOHAN, Mr. PASCRELL, Mr. OBEY, Mr. CASE, Mr. CLAY, and Ms. MCKINNEY) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on House Administration
A BILL To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require a voter-verified permanent paper record or hard copy under title III of such Act, and for other purposes.
1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
2 This Act may be cited as the ``Voter Confidence and 3 Increased Accessibility Act of 2005''. 4 SEC. 2. PROMOTING ACCURACY, INTEGRITY, AND SECU-
5 RITY THROUGH VOTER-VERIFIED PERMA-
6 NENT RECORD OR HARD COPY.
7 (a) VOTER VERIFICATION AUDIT CAPACITY.-- AND
8 (1) IN GENERAL.--Section 301(a)(2) of the 9 Help America Vote Act of 2002 (42 U.S.C. 10 15481(a)(2)) is amended to read as follows: 11 ``(2) VOTER-VERIFICATION AND AUDIT CAPAC-
12 ITY.--
13 ``(A) IN GENERAL.--
14 ``(i) The voting system shall produce 15 or require the use of an individual voter- 16 verified paper record of the voter's vote 17 that shall be made available for inspection 18 and verification by the voter before the vot- 19 er's vote is cast. For purposes of this 20 clause, examples of such a record include a 21 paper ballot prepared by the voter for the 22 purpose of being read by an optical scan- 23 ner, a paper ballot prepared by the voter 24 to be mailed to an election official (whether 25 from a domestic or overseas location), a 26 paper ballot created through the use of a HR 550 IH 3 1 ballot marking device, or a paper print-out 2 of the voter's vote produced by a touch 3 screen or other electronic voting machine, 4 so long as in each case the record permits 5 the voter to verify the record in accordance 6 with this subparagraph. 7 ``(ii) The voting system shall provide 8 the voter with an opportunity to correct 9 any error made by the system in the voter- 10 verified paper record before the permanent 11 voter-verified paper record is preserved in 12 accordance with subparagraph (B)(i). 13 ``(iii) The voting system shall not pre- 14 serve the voter-verifiable paper records in 15 any manner that makes it possible to asso- 16 ciate a voter with the record of the voter's 17 vote. 18 ``(iv) In the case of a voting system 19 which is purchased to meet the disability 20 access requirements of paragraph (3) and 21 which will be used exclusively by individ- 22 uals with disabilities, the system does not 23 need to meet the requirements of clauses 24 (i) through (iii), but shall meet the require- 25 ments described in paragraph (3)(B)(ii).
HR 550 IH 4 1 ``(B) MANUAL AUDIT CAPACITY.--
2 ``(i) The permanent voter-verified 3 paper record produced in accordance with 4 subparagraph (A) shall be preserved-- 5 ``(I) in the case of votes cast at 6 the polling place on the date of the 7 election, within the polling place in 8 the manner or method in which all 9 other paper ballots are preserved 10 within such polling place; 11 ``(II) in the case of votes cast at 12 the polling place prior to the date of 13 the election or cast by mail, in a man- 14 ner which is consistent with the man- 15 ner employed by the jurisdiction for 16 preserving such ballots in general; or 17 ``(III) in the absence of either 18 such manner or method, in a manner 19 which is consistent with the manner 20 employed by the jurisdiction for pre- 21 serving paper ballots in general. 22 ``(ii) Each paper record produced pur- 23 suant to subparagraph (A) shall be suit- 24 able for a manual audit equivalent to that 25 of a paper ballot voting system.
HR 550 IH 5 1 ``(iii) In the event of any inconsist- 2 encies or irregularities between any elec- 3 tronic records and the individual perma- 4 nent paper records, the individual perma- 5 nent paper records shall be the true and 6 correct record of the votes cast. 7 ``(iv) The individual permanent paper 8 records produced pursuant to subpara- 9 graph (A) shall be the true and correct 10 record of the votes cast and shall be used 11 as the official records for purposes of any 12 recount or audit conducted with respect to 13 any election for Federal office in which the 14 voting system is used. 15 ``(C) SPECIAL RULE FOR VOTES CAST BY
16 ABSENT MILITARY AND OVERSEAS VOTERS.--In
17 the case of votes cast by absent uniformed serv- 18 ices voters and overseas voters under the Uni- 19 formed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting 20 Act, the ballots cast by such voters shall serve 21 as the permanent paper record under subpara- 22 graph (A) in accordance with protocols estab- 23 lished by the Commission in consultation with 24 the Secretary of Defense which preserve the
HR 550 IH 6 1 privacy of the voter and are consistent with the 2 requirements of such Act.''. 3 (2) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.--Section
4 301(a)(1) of such Act (42 U.S.C. 15481(a)(1)) is 5 amended-- 6 (A) in subparagraph (A)(i), by striking 7 ``counted'' and inserting ``counted, in accord- 8 ance with paragraphs (2) and (3)''; 9 (B) in subparagraph (A)(ii), by striking 10 ``counted'' and inserting ``counted, in accord- 11 ance with paragraphs (2) and (3)''; and 12 (C) in subparagraph (B)(ii), by striking 13 ``counted'' and inserting ``counted, in accord- 14 ance with paragraphs (2) and (3)''. 15 (b) ACCESSIBILITY VOTER VERIFICATION AND OF
16 RESULTS FOR INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES.-- 17 (1) IN GENERAL.--Section 301(a)(3)(B) of 18 such Act (42 U.S.C. 15481(a)(3)(B)) is amended to 19 read as follows: 20 ``(B)(i) satisfy the requirement of subpara- 21 graph (A) through the use of at least one direct 22 recording electronic voting system or other vot- 23 ing system equipped for individuals with disabil- 24 ities at each polling place; and
HR 550 IH 7 1 ``(ii) meet the requirements of paragraph 2 (2)(A) by using a system that-- 3 ``(I) if strictly electronic, physically 4 separates the function of vote generation 5 from the functions of vote verification and 6 casting, 7 ``(II) allows the voter to verify and 8 cast the permanent record on paper or on 9 another individualized, permanent medium 10 privately and independently, and 11 ``(III) ensures that the entire process 12 of voter verification and vote casting is ac- 13 cessible to the voter.''. 14 (2) SPECIFIC REQUIREMENT OF STUDY, TEST-
15 ING, AND DEVELOPMENT OF ACCESSIBLE VOTER
16 VERIFICATION MECHANISMS.--
17 (A) STUDY AND REPORTING.--Subtitle C 18 of title II of such Act (42 U.S.C. 15381 et seq.) 19 is amended-- 20 (i) by redesignating section 247 as 21 section 248; and 22 (ii) by inserting after section 246 the 23 following new section:
HR 550 IH 8 1 ``SEC. 247. STUDY AND REPORT ON ACCESSIBLE VOTER
2 VERIFICATION MECHANISMS.
3 ``The Commission shall study, test, and develop best 4 practices to enhance the accessibility of voter-verification 5 mechanisms for individuals with disabilities and for voters 6 whose primary language is not English, including best 7 practices for the mechanisms themselves and the processes 8 through which the mechanisms are used.''. 9 (B) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.--The table of 10 contents of such Act is amended-- 11 (i) by redesignating the item relating 12 to section 247 as relating to section 248; 13 and 14 (ii) by inserting after the item relating 15 to section 246 the following new item: ``Sec. 247. Study and report on accessible voter verification mechanisms.''.
16 (c) ADDITIONAL VOTING SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS.-- 17 (1) REQUIREMENTS DESCRIBED.--Section
18 301(a) of such Act (42 U.S.C. 15481(a)) is amend- 19 ed by adding at the end the following new para- 20 graphs: 21 ``(7) INSTRUCTION OF ELECTION OFFICIALS.--
22 Each State shall ensure that all election officials are 23 instructed on the right of any individual who re- 24 quires assistance to vote by reason of blindness, 25 other disability, or inability to read or write to be
HR 550 IH 9 1 given assistance by a person chosen by that indi- 2 vidual under section 208 of the Voting Rights Act 3 of 1965. 4 ``(8) PROHIBITION OF USE OF UNDISCLOSED
5 SOFTWARE IN VOTING SYSTEMS.--No voting system 6 shall at any time contain or use any undisclosed 7 software. Any voting system containing or using 8 software shall disclose the source code, object code, 9 and executable representation of that software to the 10 Commission, and the Commission shall make that 11 source code, object code, and executable representa- 12 tion available for inspection upon request to any per- 13 son. 14 ``(9) PROHIBITION OF USE OF WIRELESS COM-
15 MUNICATIONS DEVICES IN VOTING SYSTEMS.--No
16 voting system shall contain, use, or be accessible by 17 any wireless, power-line, or concealed communication 18 device at all. 19 ``(10) CERTIFICATION OF SOFTWARE AND
20 HARDWARE.--All software and hardware used in any 21 electronic voting system shall be certified by labora- 22 tories accredited by the Commission as meeting the 23 requirements of paragraphs (8) and (9). 24 ``(11) SECURITY STANDARDS FOR VOTING SYS-
25 TEMS USED IN FEDERAL ELECTIONS.--
HR 550 IH 10 1 ``(A) IN GENERAL.--No voting system may 2 be used in an election for Federal office unless 3 the manufacturer of such system and the elec- 4 tion officials using such system meet the appli- 5 cable requirements described in subparagraph 6 (B). 7 (B) REQUIREMENTS DESCRIBED.--The
8 requirements described in this subparagraph 9 are as follows: 10 ``(i) The manufacturer and the elec- 11 tion officials shall document the chain of 12 custody for the handling of software used 13 in connection with voting systems. 14 ``(ii) The manufacturer of the soft- 15 ware used in the operation of the system 16 shall provide the Commission with updated 17 information regarding the identification of 18 each individual who participated in the 19 writing of the software, including specific 20 information regarding whether the indi- 21 vidual has ever been convicted of a crime 22 involving election fraud. 23 ``(iii) In the same manner and to the 24 same extent described in paragraph (8), 25 the manufacturer shall provide the codes
HR 550 IH 11 1 used in any software used in connection 2 with the voting system to the Commission 3 and may not alter such codes once the 4 election officials have certified the system 5 unless such system is recertified by such 6 election officials. 7 ``(iv) The manufacturer shall meet 8 standards established by the Commission 9 to prevent the existence or appearance of 10 any conflict of interest with respect to can- 11 didates for public office and political par- 12 ties, including standards to ensure that the 13 manufacturer and its officers and directors 14 do not hold positions of authority in any 15 political party or in any partisan political 16 campaign. 17 ``(12) PROHIBITING CONNECTION OF SYSTEM
18 OR TRANSMISSION OF SYSTEM INFORMATION OVER
19 THE INTERNET.--No component of any voting de- 20 vice upon which votes are cast shall be connected to 21 the Internet.''. 22 (2) REQUIRING LABORATORIES TO MEET
23 STANDARDS PROHIBITING CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
24 AS CONDITION OF ACCREDITATION FOR TESTING OF
25 VOTING SYSTEM HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE.--
HR 550 IH 12 1 (A) IN GENERAL.--Section 231(b) of such 2 Act (42 U.S.C. 15371(b)) is amended by add- 3 ing at the end the following new paragraph: 4 ``(3) PROHIBITING CONFLICTS OF INTEREST;
5 ENSURING AVAILABILITY OF RESULTS.--
6 ``(A) IN GENERAL.--A laboratory may not 7 be accredited by the Commission for purposes 8 of this section unless-- 9 ``(i) the laboratory meets the stand- 10 ards applicable to the manufacturers of 11 voting systems under section 12 301(a)(11)(B)(iv), together with such 13 standards as the Commission may estab- 14 lish to prevent the existence or appearance 15 of any conflict of interest in the testing, 16 certification, decertification, and recertifi- 17 cation carried out by the laboratory under 18 this section, including standards to ensure 19 that the laboratory does not have a finan- 20 cial interest in the manufacture, sale, and 21 distribution of voting system hardware and 22 software, and is sufficiently independent 23 from other persons with such an interest; 24 and
HR 550 IH 13 1 ``(ii) the laboratory, upon completion 2 of any testing, certification, decertification, 3 and recertification carried out under this 4 section, discloses the results to the Com- 5 mission. 6 ``(B) AVAILABILITY OF RESULTS.--Upon
7 receipt of information under subparagraph 8 (A)(ii), the Commission shall make the informa- 9 tion available to election officials and the pub- 10 lic.''. 11 (B) DEADLINE FOR ESTABLISHMENT OF
12 STANDARDS.--The Election Assistance Commis- 13 sion shall establish the standards described in 14 section 231(b)(3) of the Help America Vote Act 15 of 2002 (as added by subparagraph (A)) not 16 later than January 1, 2006. 17 (d) AVAILABILITY ADDITIONAL FUNDING EN- OF TO
18 STATES MEET COSTS REVISED REQUIRE- ABLE TO OF
19 MENTS.--
20 (1) EXTENSION OF REQUIREMENTS PAYMENTS
21 REQUIREMENTS.--Section FOR MEETING REVISED
22 257(a) of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (42 23 U.S.C. 15407(a)) is amended by adding at the end 24 the following new paragraph:
HR 550 IH 14 1 ``(4) For fiscal year 2006, $150,000,000, except 2 that any funds provided under the authorization 3 made by this paragraph may be used by a State only 4 to meet the requirements of title III which are first 5 imposed on the State pursuant to the amendments 6 made by section 2 of the Voter Confidence and In- 7 creased Accessibility Act of 2005.''. 8 (2) PERMITTING USE OF FUNDS FOR REIM-
9 BURSEMENT FOR COSTS PREVIOUSLY INCURRED.--
10 Section 251(c)(1) of such Act (42 U.S.C. 11 15401(c)(1)) is amended by striking the period at 12 the end and inserting the following: ``, or as a reim- 13 bursement for any costs incurred in meeting the re- 14 quirements of title III which are imposed pursuant 15 to the amendments made by section 2 of the Voter 16 Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 17 2005.''. 18 SEC. 3. ENHANCEMENT OF ENFORCEMENT OF HELP AMER-
19 ICA VOTE ACT OF 2002.
20 Section 401 of such Act (42 U.S.C. 15511) is amend- 21 ed-- 22 (1) by striking ``The Attorney General'' and in- 23 serting ``(a) IN GENERAL.--The Attorney General''; 24 and
HR 550 IH 15 1 (2) by adding at the end the following new sub- 2 sections: 3 ``(b) FILING COMPLAINTS AGGRIEVED PER- OF BY
4 SONS.--
5 ``(1) IN GENERAL.--A person who is aggrieved 6 by a violation of section 301, 302, or 303 which is 7 occurring or which is about to occur may file a writ- 8 ten, signed, notarized complaint with the Attorney 9 General describing the violation and requesting the 10 Attorney General to take appropriate action under 11 this section. 12 ``(2) RESPONSE BY ATTORNEY GENERAL.--The
13 Attorney General shall respond to each complaint 14 filed under paragraph (1), in accordance with proce- 15 dures established by the Attorney General that re- 16 quire responses and determinations to be made with- 17 in the same (or shorter) deadlines which apply to a 18 State under the State-based administrative com- 19 plaint procedures described in section 402(a)(2). 20 ``(c) CLARIFICATION AVAILABILITY PRIVATE OF OF
21 RIGHT ACTION.--Nothing in this section may be con- OF
22 strued to prohibit any person from bringing an action 23 under section 1979 of the Revised Statutes of the United 24 States (42 U.S.C. 1983) to enforce the uniform and non-
HR 550 IH 16 1 discriminatory election technology and administration re- 2 quirements under sections 301, 302, and 303. 3 ``(d) NO EFFECT STATE PROCEDURES.--Nothing ON
4 in this section may be construed to affect the availability 5 of the State-based administrative complaint procedures re- 6 quired under section 402 to any person filing a complaint 7 under this subsection.''. 8 SEC. 4. PERMANENT EXTENSION OF AUTHORIZATION OF
9 ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMMISSION.
10 Section 210 of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 11 (42 U.S.C. 15330) is amended by striking ``each of the 12 fiscal years 2003 through 2005'' and inserting ``each fiscal 13 year beginning with fiscal year 2003''. 14 SEC. 5. REQUIREMENT FOR MANDATORY MANUAL AUDITS
15 BY HAND COUNT.
16 (a) MANDATORY AUDITS RANDOM PRECINCTS.-- IN
17 (1) IN GENERAL.--The Election Assistance 18 Commission shall conduct random, unannounced, 19 hand counts of the voter-verified records required to 20 be produced and preserved pursuant to section 21 301(a)(2) of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (as 22 amended by section 2) for each general election for 23 Federal office (and, at the option of the State or ju- 24 risdiction involved, of elections for State and local 25 office held at the same time as such an election for
HR 550 IH 17 1 Federal office) in at least 2 percent of the precincts 2 (or equivalent locations) in each State. 3 (2) PROCESS FOR CONDUCTING AUDITS.--The
4 Commission shall conduct an audit under this sec- 5 tion of the results of an election in accordance with 6 the following procedures: 7 (A) Not later than 24 hours after a State 8 announces the final vote count in each precinct 9 in the State, the Commission shall determine 10 and then announce the precincts in the State in 11 which it will conduct the audits. 12 (B) With respect to votes cast at the pre- 13 cinct or equivalent location on or before the 14 date of the election (other than provisional bal- 15 lots described in subparagraph (C)), the Com- 16 mission shall count by hand the voter-verified 17 records required to be produced and preserved 18 under section 301(a)(2)(A) of the Help America 19 Vote Act of 2002 (as amended by section 2) 20 and compare those records with the count of 21 such votes as announced by the State. 22 (C) With respect to votes cast other than 23 at the precinct on the date of the election (other 24 than votes cast before the date of the election 25 described in subparagraph (B)) or votes cast by
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