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Emergency Paper Ballots for 2006: YOU MUST CALL TODAY

Senators Boxer, Dodd, and Feingold, as well as Rep. Rush Holt, have introduced a bill to provide funding to jurisdictions to print emergency paper ballots for the November election. Any jurisdiction that accepts the money must offer a paper ballot to any voter who requests one on election day.


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Strengthening the Holt Election Reform Bill

I attended the most recent citizen lobbying for H.R. 550 last week. I believe that what the bill does right makes it our best hope for election refom: it prohibits undosclosed software, conflicts of interest in machine testing, and prohibits wireless or other communication devices (see the text of 550).  I also agree with those who believe that the 2% audit provision needs work.  

To begin, I think we can establish that it is safe to call for amendments to HR 550 without endangering the bill. Other ER posters have, rightly, trumpeted, Holt's recent open letter to critics of 550.  Here is what he wrote about amendments:

Those who believe the federal 2 percent minimum audit requirement should be higher should join me in getting the House Administration Committee to act on my bill, and then push for an amendment to increase the percentage. Working to defeat H.R. 550 at this critical juncture is tactic that will only cement the status quo.

I have been concerned that if election reform activists call for changes, the bill's prospects could diminish.  Holt's statement is reasurance that calling for committee markup and then amendments is not going to hurt anything. He's talking here about the sample sixe, but the same principle should apply to other audit amendments.

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