[EM] Support Clean Elections in 2008

[Kathy Dopp]

Hello,  I hope this is appropriate for this list. It is important.

I urge you to support the amended U.S. Representative Rush Holt's
HR811 "Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act" and its
Senate companion bill S559 and contact your Senators to support its
passage. (http://senate.gov)

Here is more information (FAQs, a list of changes, and other info) on
the newly revised HR811 that Representative Holt has provided on his
web site:

http://www.holt.house.gov/HR_811.shtml

and here is the amended bill itself:

http://www.nass.org/Hill%20Documents/HR%20811%20ZL%20Substitute%20as%20reported%205_8_07.pdf

The amended HR811 is GOOD because it:

1. immediately replaces all paperless digital recording electronic
(DRE) voting systems with optical scan paper ballot systems (there is
insufficient time for any jurisdictions to purchase anything but
opscans by 2008), and

2. immediately requires, for the first time in history, nationwide
independent audits of all federal election outcomes, and

3. more than sufficiently funds all its requirements for the next two
years and beyond, and

4. requires replacing all DRES with VVPT rolls by the 2010 election so
that if we apply enough pressure on local election officials, or if
vendors do not invent new DRE equipment which print paper ballots
which are durable and separate fast enough, then that means ALL
jurisdictions will be using paper ballot opscan systems by 2010.

At the very worst, HR811 gets us through the 2008 election because it
gives a large chance of ensuring that the right people are sworn into
office, perhaps for the first time in American history.

The House Admin. Committee's amendments  to HR811 incorporate quite a
few of the good revisions election activists suggested including:

1. changes the language for the official ballot of record in case of
disputes so that the electronic counts cannot be automatically used
whenever sufficient paper ballot records are unreadable; and

2. removes the loophole where audits could be avoided by requiring any
state mandated recounts to manually count at least as many ballots as
the audit would; and

3. fixes the timelines to be reasonable for election officials to
replace existing DREs which do not meet the requirements for durable
paper ballots which preserve voter anonymity; and

4. fixes the funding to be more than adequate to replace all DRE
voting machines and conduct audits; and

5. removes any requirement for text conversion technology - it gives
the choice of allowing voters with disabilities to verify their vote
by conversion of either the text or the marked ballot; and

6. fixes the Internet connection clause to prohibit connections to
vote tabulating or ballot programming devices, as well as to vote
casting devices; and

7. changes the make up of the state audit boards to give states more
flexibility for appointing independent auditors as long as they meet
the GAO requirements for independent auditing; and

8. removes the extension of funding authorization for the Election
Assistance Commission; and

9. requires that paper ballots be available at all polling locations
for any voter which requests one and in case of problems with
electronic voting systems, and requires that those paper ballots are
counted with the other ballots cast on Election Day.

I am happy that so many of the amendments election integrity activists
asked for were made to HR811, and that the bill is now reasonable for
election officials, and comes close to accomplishing what we all want
- accurate election outcomes.

Please make up your own mind to support HR811/S559 based on actual facts.

Untrue rumours about the amended HR811 are being spread by a prominent
"election integrity activist", whose final recommendations are
consistently the same as election officials  who are against any
mandated independent audits of election results and against any
federal legislation which would force election officials to replace
current voting equipment. Please keep in mind that some "election
integrity activists" may have financial or other incentives to "not"
quickly solve our country's election problems and may be attempting to
kill any and all federal election reform legislation by employing
disingenuous, illogical arguments.

For instance, some of the opponents of HR811 formerly opposed full
software disclosure requirements in the original HR811, yet now are
opposing HR811 because it does not require full software disclosure.
See http://electionmathematics.org/em-voting-systems/EIGroupsOpposePublicSoftware.pdf

In order to replace all digital recording electronic (DRE) voting
machines by 2010, full software disclosure cannot be required because
implementing voing systems which use fully disclosed software would
take at least 4.5 years to develop, test, do federal and state
certifications, purchase, do training, and implement.

In other words, there is a clear choice, either:

1. require full voting system software disclosure and wait 5 years to
replace all existing DRES due to the time it takes for development,
testing, certification, training, and implementation cycles; or

2. leave software disclosure essentially the same as it is today (as
the amended HR811 does), and immediately replace (by 2010) all DREs
with existing optical scan paper ballot systems that are already
federally certified

Election officials and voting machine vendors are actively fighting
against the revised Holt bill for two reasons:

1. election officials do not want election results to be subjected to
independent audits, and

2. voting machine vendors want to be able to sell DRE
electronic-ballot voting machines which are more profitable for them
than selling paper-ballot optical scan systems.

According to the literature of "The Election Technology Council",
voting machine vendors cannot develop and implement any voting systems
by 2010.

In "Election Technology Council Comments on Help America Vote Act Amendments":

http://josephhall.org/tmp/ITAA-ETC-hava_amendments.pdf

(See the color chart)

voting vendors claim to need 54 mos. (4.5 years until at least 2011)
to develop, certify and implement any new products to meet the new
requirements of HR811.

Therefore the requirement to replace all DREs w/ VVPAT rolls by 2010,
according to the vendors' own material, would mean that DREs,
including the ones with paper rolls, would have to be replaced by
paper ballot optical scan voting systems.

It is very important for all responsible Americans who love democracy
to support HR811 and to call, email, and write your US Senators and
ask them to pass S559 with the same amendments that have been made to
HR811.

Best,

Kathy Dopp

The material expressed herein is the informed  product of the author
Kathy Dopp's fact-finding and investigative efforts. Dopp is a
Mathematician, Expert in election audit mathematics and procedures; in
exit poll discrepancy analysis; and can be reached at

P.O. Box 680192
Park City, UT 84068
phone 435-658-4657

http://utahcountvotes.org
http://kathydopp.com
http://electionmathematics.org
http://electionarchive.org

Election Audit Mathematics Bibliography
http://electionarchive.org/ucvAnalysis/US/paper-audits/KathyDoppAuditMathBibliography.pdf

"Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body
and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day," wrote
Thomas Jefferson in 1816