http://capwiz.com/naco/issues/alert/?alertid=10264906&PROCESS=Take+Action
Action Alert
Help America Vote Act II- Floor Action Soon!
Your Help is Critical!
Update: Weigh in by Friday, September 14!! As a result of
your calls and faxes, House leadership has postponed consideration of H.R. 811
until the week of September 17. Keep calling and faxing your members of
Congress; urge them to tell leadership to start fresh and send the bill back to
committee so that they can sit down with county and state officials and develop
standards that are workable and fully funded. Fire up the phone lines and fax
machines again! H.R. 811 is coming up for a final vote in the House of
Representatives. Your member of Congress has been asked to let leadership know
how they intend to vote by Tuesday at 4 p.m.
H.R. 811 is officially scheduled to come up for a vote
between Wednesday and Friday; we understand that based on responses to
Tuesday's deadline, decisions will be made about whether to allow any
amendments on Wednesday afternoon, with debate and a vote on final passage
slated for Thursday or Friday.
Below is a flyer that NACo will be distributing to House
offices next week urging a "NO" vote. This battle is still very
uphill; even members of Congress who understand our concerns are inclined to
vote for a bill for which they have received thousands of letters, e-mails and
faxes from voters affiliated with MoveOn.Org, Common Cause, People for the
American Way, and other organizations that have represented this legislation to
their membership as "fixing" problems in our voting system.
Also below is a "Dear Colleague" letter sent today
by a bipartisan pair of H.R. 811 cosponsors who are interested in amending the
legislation to address some of our concerns. They are still working on their
list of amendments and are eager to hear from other members of Congress who are
interested in improving the legislation.
Given the short timeframe, please do the following ASAP
1) Call your member of Congress and ask how they intend to
vote on H.R. 811;
2) Insist on an answer. Tell them that you know the
Democratic leadership has sent out a "whip notice" asking for a reply
by 4 p.m.
3) If they intend to vote against H.R. 811, thank them and
let me know!
4) If you cannot persuade your member of Congress to vote
against H.R. 811, insist that they contact Representatives Moore and Petri and
work with them on amendments to address your most pressing or specific concerns
(Democrats will want to call Moore's office, Republicans will want to contact
Petri).
If you do not have an existing relationship with your member
of Congress or their staff, you can find their contact information here. After
entering your ZIP code, click on "info" for each member to get their
telephone number and list of key staff.
If you have time to do so, please also put it in writing and
fax your comments to their office. The pro-H.R. 811 advocacy groups are
drowning their offices in paper; it helps for us to do so as well. Under the
latest version-
* Counties
without a voter-verified paper trail will have to adopt one for 2008, and even
counties that use a paper-ballot marking device (such as the AutoMARK) will
have to replace their equipment with yet-to-be-developed equipment that allows
for hands-free visual inspection and casting of the paper ballot by 2012.
* There is no
longer a requirement for "archival quality paper", but reel-to-reel
paper is only permissible through 2012 and the paper printout will still be the
official ballot.
* You will have
to provide parallel voting systems in every polling place - along with
deploying the new electronic equipment, you must offer pre-printed paper
ballots to every voter. This also applies for early voting and vote centers.
* There is no
longer a requirement for state audit boards to take possession of the ballots,
but the state would still be appointing an outside auditor to conduct a
pre-certification hand audit of up to 10 percent of precincts. Optical ballot
scanners would still be banned from use in any recount.
* The bill
acknowledges that the cost would be upwards of $1 billion - but makes no
promise that funds will ever be provided.
* All of the
intentionally vaguely worded requirements of the bill are still enforceable by
private action in federal court.
Keep up the good work! Let's get this bill pulled again -
<Dear Colleague Letter>
August 31, 2007
Dear Colleague: We want to bring to your attention a recent
Washington Post editorial regarding election reform legislation that the House
will consider next week. As original cosponsors of H.R. 811, the Voter
Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act, we strongly support the idea of
voter verified paper ballots. We have heard, however, from our local and state
election officials their deep concerns about the cost and feasibility of H.R.
811 in its current form. It is our hope that we can put aside partisan
differences and work together to make the necessary improvements to H.R. 811 so
that these concerns are addressed. We must increase voter confidence in our
election process, but we should not impose unfunded mandates and unreasonable
deadlines on our local and state governments.
Very truly yours,
/s DENNIS MOORE
/s THOMAS PETRI
Member of Congress
Member of Congress
<NACo Flyer>
Despite common misperception, H.R. 811 does not simply
require a paper trail on voting equipment. It is a sweeping rewrite of the Help
America Vote Act that will impose a multibillion-dollar unfunded mandate,
create havoc throughout the nation's election system, require every county in
the nation to replace current equipment, postpone the certification of election
results, create a tide of private lawsuits, and require counties to rush
implementation and cut corners in ways that will destroy public confidence
rather than bolster it.
The National Association of Counties opposes H.R. 811 as
written but would support amendments to address concerns such as the following:
*
Multibillion-dollar unfunded mandate
* Preempts state
laws allowing a reel-to-reel paper trail
* Requires many
counties to replace their equipment twice - once in 2008 and again in 2012
* Requires
parallel voting systems - new electronic systems that don't yet exist along
with sufficient pre-printed paper ballots for all voters
* Imposes
cumbersome and untested audit process
* Prohibits
recounts using any automated equipment
* Prevents the
use of vote centers and early voting unless county officials print thousands of
different ballot styles in multiple languages for each location
* Ignores EAC
standards and voting system certification
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