GOP Urges Investigation of Voting Machine Performance

ABC News ^ | January 10, 2004

[kingu]

I have always taken the position that I want to see and verify the ballot that goes into the box before I believe my vote has been registered. The 'inkavote' system we've been inflicted with in California makes that harder -- the old punch card was infinitely easier to tell if you'd marked the right number since the number on the ballot form matched the numbers next to the holes. 'inkavote' covers the number, which I really don't like.

With these electronic machines, I don't have a ballot to check over. I have a computer screen that might or might not reflect what my intention was. It doesn't print out a ballot to put into the box; instead it cheerfully assures me that my vote will be counted.

I'm all for machines for making voting easier, but they should print a ballot which is what is counted for the results of the election. Go ahead and use the electronic record for 'instant trends' as soon as the polls close, but until verification of the paper ballots is made, the election should not be considered over.

How many people have had a dispute with the bank over an ATM, especially in the first decade of their use? Thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands? I'm not interested in our political process being a guinea pig to iron out the bugs.

[Darksheare]

Well, short form: As long as there is political power, and the powerhungry, no matter what voting system we use short of a George Orwellian universe- there will always be the element of shenanigans in voting.
Sad, sick, and horrible.
The only real defense is if honest people on both sides shout down and question anything out of the ordinary and irregular, I.e. violating voting law and such.

Unfortunately, I live in NY state, and some of the people I speak to that ID themselves as 'Democrats' state that they "MUST win through ANY means necessary."
I reminded them of Tammany Hall and Boss Tweed.
The deplorable philosophy of the end justifying the means and such.

*Sighs*
Just keep your eyes open and keep your conscience clear.
So far, I haven't seen any reason to be 'upset' with you.
You've presented this pretty well. (I will be honest, there have been some that posted here specifically to be jerks. But, such is life.)
Thanks for posting.
Will see you around.

[GregD]

I think you are talking about www.VoteHere.com who was hacked. They are a vendor.

My site is www.VerifiedVoting.org and we are not looking for free anything (other than maybe free printers if these damn vendors want to sell their stinking systems and have them considered adequate by the end-users - we voters.)

[Revel]

http://www.americanfreepress.net/08_25_03/Concerns_Over/concerns_over.html

[Cacique]

BTT

[Revel]

Personally I think the punch ballots were not so bad in one aspect. If you can't follow instructions or understand English then your vote should not count. People with a legitimate physical handicap should be eligible for help of course.

[lepton]

Rep. Rush Holt Introduces Legislation to Require All Voting Machines To Produce A Voter-Verified Paper Trail

H.R.2239 Summary and Status

S.1980 Summary and Status

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Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2003 (Introduced in House)

HR 2239 IH

108th CONGRESS

1st Session

H. R. 2239

To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require a voter-verified permanent record or hardcopy under title III of such Act, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

May 22, 2003

Mr. HOLT 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 record or hardcopy under title III of such Act, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2003'.

SEC. 2. EXTENSION OF TIME PROVIDED FOR STATES TO REQUEST PAYMENTS UNDER TITLE I.

(a) PAYMENTS FOR ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE ADMINISTRATION OF ELECTIONS- Section 101(a) of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (42 U.S.C. 15301(a)) is amended by striking `not later than 6 months after the date of the enactment of this Act' and inserting `not later than the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November 2003'.

(b) PAYMENTS FOR REPLACEMENT OF PUNCH CARD OR LEVER VOTING MACHINES- Section 102(b)(1) of such Act (42 U.S.C. 15301(b)(1)) is amended by striking `not later than the date that is 6 months after the date of the enactment of this Act' and inserting `not later than the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November 2003'.

(c) EXTENSION OF PERIOD OF AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS-

(1) IN GENERAL- Section 104(a) of such Act (42 U.S.C. 15304(a)) is amended by striking `$650,000,000' and inserting `an aggregate amount of $650,000,000 for fiscal years 2003 and 2004'.

(2) DATE FOR TRANSFER TO ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMMISSION OF UNOBLIGATED FUNDS- Section 104(c)(2)(B) of such Act (42 U.S.C. 15304(c)(2)(B)) is amended by striking `September 1, 2003' and inserting `January 1, 2004'.

(d) REQUIREMENT TO DEPLOY INTERIM MEASURE IF WAIVER REQUESTED- Section 102(a)(3)(B) of such Act (42 U.S.C. 15301(a)(3)(B)) is amended by striking the period at the end and inserting the following: `, except that any State requesting any such waiver shall accept and implement a paper system for use on an interim basis as provided in section 5(b) of the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2003 in time for use in the November 2004 general election.'.

SEC. 3. REPEAL OF EXEMPTION OF ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMMISSION FROM CERTAIN GOVERNMENT CONTRACTING REQUIREMENTS.

(a) IN GENERAL- Section 205 of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (42 U.S.C. 15325) is amended by striking subsection (e).

(b) EFFECTIVE DATE- The amendment made by subsection (a) shall apply with respect to contracts entered into by the Election Assistance Commission on or after the date of the enactment of this Act.

SEC. 4. PROMOTING ACCURACY, INTEGRITY, AND SECURITY THROUGH VOTER-VERIFIED PERMANENT RECORD OR HARD COPY.

(a) IN GENERAL- Section 301(a)(2) of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (42 U.S.C. 15481(a)(2)) is amended to read as follows:

`(2) VOTER-VERIFICATION AND AUDIT CAPACITY-

`(A) VOTER-VERIFICATION IN GENERAL- The voting system shall produce a voter-verified paper record suitable for a manual audit equivalent or superior to that of a paper ballot box system, as further specified in subparagraph (B).

`(B) MANUAL AUDIT CAPACITY-

`(i) The voting system shall produce a permanent paper record, each individual paper record of which shall be made available for inspection and verification by the voter at the time the vote is cast, and preserved within the polling place in the manner in which all other paper ballots are preserved within the polling place on Election Day for later use in any manual audit.

`(ii) The voting system shall provide the voter with an opportunity to correct any error made by the system before the permanent record is preserved for use in any manual audit.

`(iii) The voter verified paper record produced under subparagraph (A) and this subparagraph shall be available as an official record and shall be the official record used for any recount conducted with respect to any election in which the system is used.

`(C) SOFTWARE AND MODEMS-

`(i) No voting system shall at any time contain or use undisclosed software. Any voting system containing or using software shall disclose the source code of that software to the Commission, and the Commission shall make that source code available for inspection upon request to any citizen.

`(ii) No voting system shall contain any wireless communication device at all.

`(iii) All software and hardware used in any electronic voting system shall be certified by laboratories accredited by the

Commission as meeting the requirements of clauses (i) and (ii).'.

(b) VOTER VERIFICATION OF RESULTS FOR INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES- Section 301(a)(3) of such Act (42 U.S.C. 15481(a)(3) is amended--

(1) in the heading, by inserting `AND VOTER-VERIFICATION OF RESULTS' after `ACCESSIBILITY';

(2) in subparagraph (B), by striking `; and' and inserting the following: `, and such voting system shall provide a mechanism for voter-verification of results which separates the function of vote generation from the function of vote casting in a manner analogous to that described in section 4 with respect to the separation of paper ballot generation and paper ballot verification and preservation, but does not require the use of paper.';

(3) by amending subparagraph (C) to read as follows:

`(C) The equipment deployed in accordance with subparagraph (B) shall meet the voting system standards for disability access and voter-verification of results as outlined in this paragraph in accordance with the deadline set forth in section 5(a), provided that if it does not and an interim paper system is deployed in accordance with section 5(b), disabled voters shall have the option of using the interim paper system with the assistance of an aide of the voter's personal selection or using the voting system otherwise put in place for use by disabled voters at the time in question in accordance with the Help America Vote Act of 2002, as in effect prior to the enactment of this Act, except that the deadline set forth in section 301(a)(3)(C) of such Act (42 U.S.C. 15481(a)(3)(C)) is moved forward from January 1, 2007, to January 1, 2006.'; and

(4) by adding at the end the following new subparagraph:

`(D) Election officials shall be instructed in the rights of the disabled to vote with the assistance of an aide of their selection under the Voting Rights Act of 1965.'.

(c) SPECIFIC, DELINEATED REQUIREMENT OF STUDY, TESTING, AND DEVELOPMENT OF BEST PRACTICES- In addition to any other requirements under the Help America Vote Act of 2002, the Election Assistance Commission shall study, test, and develop best practices to enhance accessibility and voter-verification mechanisms for disabled voters.

SEC. 5. CHANGE IN DEADLINE FOR COMPLIANCE WITH STANDARDS.

(a) IN GENERAL- Section 301(d) of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (42 U.S.C. 15481(d)) is amended by striking `on and after January 1, 2006' and inserting `in time for elections for Federal office beginning with the regularly scheduled general election to be held in November 2004'.

(b) INTERIM PAPER SYSTEM- Each State and jurisdiction that certifies in the manner described in section 102(a)(3)(B) that it shall be unable to comply with the requirements of section 301 in time for the regularly scheduled general election for Federal office to be held in November 2004 shall receive a paper voting system, based on paper systems in use in the jurisdiction, if any, at the expense of the Commission that shall be deemed compliant with section 301 by the Commission for use in the November 2004 general elections.

SEC. 6. REQUIREMENT FOR FEDERAL CERTIFICATION OF TECHNOLOGICAL SECURITY OF VOTER REGISTRATION LISTS.

Section 303(a)(3) of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (42 U.S.C. 15483(a)(3)) is amended by striking the period at the end and inserting the following: `, as certified by the Commission.'.

SEC. 7. REQUIREMENT FOR MANDATORY RECOUNTS.

The Election Assistance Commission shall conduct manual mandatory surprise recounts of the voter-verified records of each election for Federal office (and, at the option of the State or jurisdiction involved, of elections for State and local office) in .5 percent of the jurisdictions in each State and .5 percent of the overseas jurisdictions in which voter-verified records are preserved in accordance with this section immediately following each general election for Federal office, and shall promptly publish the results of those recounts. The treatment of the results of the recount shall be governed by applicable Federal, State, or local law, except that any individual who is a citizen of the jurisdiction involved may file an appeal with the Commission if the individual believes that such law does not provide a fair remedy.

SEC. 8. EFFECTIVE DATE.

Except as provided in section 3(b), the amendments made by this Act shall take effect as if included in the enactment of the Help America Vote Act of 2002.

[GregD]

I took the time to read some of the posters who you may be referring to. I agree, it was not presented well by some who visited in the past. This issue DEMANDS a non-partisan approach, and that is the manner in which we operate VerifiedVoting.org, and we will offer no less.

I took some time to think about how I wished to approach this, as I sincerely wish the support of those that engage in discussion here, and I DID NOT want to come over here and start a fight. If we fight, and don't win this issue together, then corrupt politics wins the day and we citizens lose.

I completely agree with you, and that is why I am here, that honest people must challenge election violations. We have all seen that, and much greater corruption, and I feel it is time that we make all such criminals accountable - and force all members of our government to comply with the laws that they expect us to observe. Nobody is above the law, and it is time that we all make a stand for what is right. I am sick and tired of corrupt politicians on both sides of the aisle.

A good example is that case in Broward County that I referenced. I have no dog in that fight. It was a race between 7 Republicans. The win was by 12 votes, 134 votes were lost (plus a few more because the scanned ballot software failed) and now the county is out of legal compliance since they have no way to conduct the legally mandated recount since the touchscreen systems cannot do that.

So I will emphasize once again, because I'm about to spend the rest of the evening doing some other work, that we need your support. If I have presented my case fairly, if you feel there is grounds on this issue by which we can agree, please come help us. We want you.

How to help? There are action items on the front page of VerifiedVoting.org. We need groups to go see your legislators and DEMAND passage of HR2238 and S1980. We already have bipartisan support, and we need a LOT MORE.

We need groups and organizations to endorse the bills. This list needs to grow significantly before Congress returns to session http://www.verifiedvoting.org/endorsers_s1980.asp By growing that list, in a bipartisan manner, our respective leadership will understand that there is universal concensus and demand for passage of the bills.

If you are in Texas, and can talk to DeLay, please do it right away.

If you are in Ohio, and can talk to Ney, bless your heart. He heads the House Administration Committee, and we need to get HR2239 out of there, onto the House floor, and passed into law.

And if you have ideas to help us, please write to our site so we can speak on the telephone and work together. We are simply a group of concerned citizens, mostly of a technical inclination in terms of our careers (geeks), and we need all the help we can muster.

[Revel]

BTW I do agree with you that Electronic voting without an extreemly good verifyable paper trail is nuts! I think it is the wrong way all together for the most part. There are so many ways to cheat and then have no evidence of the cheating later. We are fools to allow it.

I was thinking that one way to handle this would be to have the votes counted by two diferent software programs running simutaneoulsy. The creators of those softwares being bared by law from talking to one another directly. If at any time the vote counts from each program do not agree then...Investigation time.

[torchthemummy]

Thanks for posting GregD! This is not a question of partisan politics. Everyone wants their vote to count no matter what party. The fact still stands that this system with no "ballot receipt" is a danger for all.

The truth of the matter, without being too partisan, is that voter fraud has been primarily a Democrat Party reality for a very long time. From Daley in Chicago in 1960 to student double-voting and homeless payoffs and Bill Clinton's Voting Card for California immigrants in 2000 to South Dakota Indian reservation registration fraud in 2002 (so many others but I digress.) When voting fraud has come to the fore it is inevitably in primary Democratic voting strong-holds ie. urban areas and is under the auspices of Democrat secretary of states and city and county election supervisors (all contested Florida counties in 2000 were under Democrat control as we know).

That being said I appreciate your candidness and hope that in the spirit of honest competion the end result is indeed a paper trail if the need for a recount ever occurs.

To my fellow Freepers: I didn't read all posts but caught a couple that were proposing Zotting GregD. I think that we should all be able to welcome honest opinion from other views if a basic decorum is observed by all involved. I'm hoping that GregD will stick around, take views he disagrees with in stride while making his own points, some that maybe we need to hear. Any view is palatable when applied through gracefullness. And sometimes preaching to the choir just can be plain boring.

[lepton]

BTW, where your site says "The text of H.R. 2239 and its details are here" the status and summary can be found - but I don't see the texts. You might want to correct that.

[F16Fighter]

"Hello. I’m the webmaster of www.verifiedvoting.org.

I’m a Democrat, and you folks presumably will want to flame me on that point alone...I need your help. "

Call me a cynic Greg, but you appear too sincere, polite, and bright to be a Democrat. Exactly what are you trying to pull?? ;-)

Tell you what -- if you can convince the DU to help "urge an investigation" into absentee-voting on the part of cadavers, corpses, and zombies in all national Democrat-controlled precincts, count me in...

BTW, welcome to FR.

[Darksheare]

I live in NY, home of the Tammany Hall crew.
*chuckle*
You'd think that a state that had such a history would be loathe to repeat history.
BUT.. Human nature.
(New York has several rumors, legends, and outright stated problems with politics in general. Sometimes I crack jokes about having the state start over from scratch and having regular people sent to Albany for the state legislature and so forth.)

Good luck, and that is true.
We do need to work on this.
It's just keeping it on track.

And so far from what I've seen you've presented this pretty well.
Thanks.

"mostly of a technical inclination in terms of our careers (geeks),"
LOL! Technomages, of a sort.
I'll be going to bed soon.
Again, good luck and good evening.

[Kenny Bunk]

Thank you for explaining the secret of democrat dominance of the polls in certain areas

[Kenny Bunk]

Thank you for explaining the secret of democrat dominance of the polls in certain areas

[Kenny Bunk]

Thank you for explaining the secret of democrat dominance of the polls in certain areas

[GregD]

Renton WA - would that be Bev Harris? Yes, I have spoken with her - she runs www.blackboxvoting.org and www.blackboxvoting.com. She has done a great deal of important research, which has helped to reveal the absolute cespool that we call our "elections system".

If you have not visited them lately, their latest revelation was interesting. Turns out a number of ex-cons have been writing our elections software, one of whom was same day we leaned about all the uncertified software in use in CA.

I'm not sure what your impression of her site or her work may be, but we approach this from a TOTALLY non-partisan, non-conspiracy theory perspective. This is about democracy, and fairness. Period...convicted for embezzlement using computers, and was never permitted again to touch a checkbook. But he had 24x7 access to the voting computers. Hmmm... That was on the

[Kenny Bunk]

Yes, Greg, welcome. Since Gore stole at least 5 states due to blatant fraud, are you really sure you are sincerely interested in reforming your party? I mean with whom will you dine after your clean-out? Us?

Why not a less ambitious agenda? How about all dead democrats only voting once? Hey, it would be a start and show some good faith.

[GregD]

I'm there man - I totally agree. Listen, if we could go back to punchcard, the guy who originally designed them is in the business still. He developed a new machine that can be produced for around $150 each.

Touchscreen systems are about $5k (or more) each

Hmmm, which to buy? EASY DECISION HUH?

[F16Fighter]

"Why not a less ambitious agenda? How about all dead democrats only voting once? Hey, it would be a start and show some good faith."

An "amen" outta me...

..And will the votes of the living who serve in the military be counted this time, Greg?