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Congress Urged to Pass Fast-Track "PAPER BALLOT" Legislation

/*Paperless voting machines pose "national election emergency"*/ *Congress Urged to Pass Fast-Track "PAPER BALLOT" Legislation *

Resolutions captioned /"A Vote WE CAN BELIEVE IN -- Verified Voting 2008,"/ urging immediate passage of emergency electoral legislation, were endorsed last week by the Sonoma County Democratic Party and the Sonoma County Chapter of Progressive Democrats of America.

The goal is to require that paper ballots replace any paperless electronic voting systems in time for the upcoming November election--a vote that takes place exactly 7 weeks from today.

The campaign's resolution calls for /"the emergency passage of bipartisan legislation such as Rep. Rush Holt's HR 5036 (Emergency Assistance for Secure Elections Act )so that paperless voting systems can be replaced with paper ballot systems which provide a paper ballot, marked and verified by the voter, as the ballot of record, in time for the November 2008 elections."/

"Paperless, electronic touch-screen (DRE) voting machines have been documented losing or miscounting significant numbers of votes in hundreds of reports all across the country," said spokesperson Dan Ashby, cofounder and director of Election Defense Alliance, a multipartisan citizens' action organization devoted to election integrity.

"Voters have a right to expect their votes will be counted completely and accurately as cast. We know this is not true with computerized voting machines, and that paperless DRE machines are the very worst," Ashby said.

"We're appealing to both parties in Congress to provide paper ballot backup measures in time for the November election. It's in the best interest of the voters, the parties, and electoral democracy to have fully transparent elections with vote counts we can verify."

Besides HR 5036, other election integrity bills pending in Congress include HR 5803, which would fund backup paper ballots, and HR 6794, which would require manual audits.

*H.R. 5036* would establish funds to reimburse certain jurisdictions for the costs of implementing paper voting systems for the 2008 November elections. It would also establish funds to reimburse jurisdictions for the costs of conducting post-election audits as described in the bill. http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-5036

*H.R. 5803* would fund a program to make backup paper ballots available in the case of the failure of a voting system or voting equipment in the election or some other emergency situation, and for other purposes during the November 2008 elections. http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-5803

*H.R. 6794* would require manual audits of results for federal offices in the November 2008 elections, and that any tally discrepancies be resolved before a state's vote can be certified. http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-6794

*FURTHER INFORMATION:*

For complete text of the paper ballot resolution, legislative links, and further details, see http://www.PaperBallot.info.