Remember that team of statisticians, headed by Stephen Freeman and Josh Mitteldorf, who trashed the Mitovsky exit poll report, and who make a persuasive argument that statistical tests point to the exit polls being right? Well they have an action arm at www.uscountvotes.org and a specifically legislative action arm at verfiedvoting.com They say that there a bill that does everything they think is necessary to safeguard the next vote has been introduced into the House (HR 550) and they would like people to encourage their representatives to co-sponsor it (since there are also several bad bills competing with it). They have a very good action website set up -- all you have to do is fill in your name and address and they'll figure out who your representatives are send the emails and faxes to them in your name.
http://hq.demaction.org/dia/organizations/vevo/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=395
They are still sorting through the complementary Senate Bills.
For those who are interested, below is what they have to say in more detail.
Michael
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Voter Verification Newsletter Special Issue Volume 3, Number 2, on February 17, 2005
*** Please forward this newsletter to your friends! *** *** Invite them to visit http://verifiedvoting.org *** *** For this and previous newsletters, see *** *** http://verifiedvoting.org/newsletters ***
PAPER BALLOT LEGISLATION IN A NUTSHELL
A lot of Federal legislation has been introduced in the last few weeks on voter verification and other voting issues.
We thought it would be helpful to boil down the choices and make clear where we stand on the various bills. For more details and links to the bill texts, please see our legislation page: http://verifiedvoting.org/leg
Our opinions are based on the technical merits of the bills. It's not clear at this point how the politics will work out. We will monitor what's happening on Capitol Hill and keep you posted as the situation evolves (please keeping checking our web page!)
Meanwhile, we hope you will visit our alerts page to take action, if you have not already done so, and visit often to see if there are new actions to take.
BILLS WE SUPPORT
H.R. 550, the "Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2005" was introduced by Rep. Holt (NJ). In only two weeks, it has over 100 cosponsors. H.R. 550 is the "gold standard" of verified voting bills. It not only requires voter-verified paper ballots (VVPB) but also mandatory manual audits, requires increased security, prohibits undisclosed software, and more. It was carefully written after extensive consultation with many experts. VerifiedVoting.org supports H.R. 550 in the strongest possible terms and encourages all members of the House to become cosponsors.
The "Voting Integrity and Verification Act of 2005" (VIVA 2005), was introduced by Sen. Ensign (NV) as S. 330 in the Senate and by Rep. Gibbons (NV) as H.R. 704 in the House. These bills are narrowly focussed on voter-verified paper ballots. They don't do everything we want, but they do what they do very well. We support these bills and encourage all members of Congress to cosponsor them (as well as H.R. 550).
BILLS WE DO NOT SUPPORT
S.17, the "Voting Opportunity and Technology Enhancement Rights Act of 2005" (or VOTER Act of 2005), was introduced by Sen. Dodd (CT). This bill addresses a wide range of election reforms. In particular, it requires voter-verified ballots -- but a PAPER ballot is one of four options. Unfortunately, these provisions are weak, vague, and do not take effect until 2009. We cannot support the voter verification provisions of this bill in their current form.
H.R. 533, by Rep. John Conyers (MI), has the same name as S. 17, even though it is not the exactly the same bill. Nevertheless, the VVPB provisions of this bill are also fatally flawed. We cannot support this bill in its current form.
H.R. 278, the "Know Your Vote Counts Act of 2005", was introduced by Rep. Steve King of Iowa. This fails to give the VVPB precedence in case of machine vs. paper count discrepancies.
We do not support it, because we feel that it would be ineffective and distract from efforts to pass more meaningful legislation.
BREAKING NEWS
Today, Senator Clinton (NY) introduced the "Count Every Vote Act of 2005" as S. 450. At the same time, Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (OH) introduced companion legislation in the House. Both cover a wide range of electoral reforms. We are reviewing these (very long) bills and will post our analysis of them on our Legislation web page soon.
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TAKE ACTION
To view our current action alerts and join our campaigns for verifiable voting legislation, please visit http://verifiedvoting.org/alerts
JOIN VERIFIED VOTING
Become a supporter of Verified Voting or volunteer at http://verifiedvoting.org/join
JOIN US COUNT VOTES
Become a supporter or volunteer at http://uscountvotes.org/fairelection/joinus.html
DONATE TO US COUNT VOTES
The upcoming months are a critical time for us in our efforts to educate the public, obtain data and build our public archival and database system for analyzing election results. Your contributions to our efforts to ensure accurately counted elections are much needed and much appreciated. Please give generously at: http://fairelection/donate.html
If you prefer to mail in a check and avoid any merchant fees:
USCountVotes has applied for 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, tax-exemption pending (tax-deductible retroactively once IRS approves exemption application), make the check out to - "USCountVotes"
Then mail the check to our offices at: USCountVotes P.O. Box 682556 Park City, UT 84068
ABOUT USCountVotes
USCountVotes proposes to create and analyze - for the first time ever - a database containing precinct-level election results for the entire United States. This rich mine of data will be made publicly available and analyzed by our project's affiliated mathematicians, pollsters and statisticians, as well as by an independent peer-review board. Our goal is to use this data to develop and test techniques to reliably detect precinct-level vote counting errors worthy of investigation.[1] <#_ftn1>
By the national election in November 2006, for the first time in American history, it could be possible for candidates to be reliably warned of indications of machine or human-caused vote count errors in time to challenge the results. With a sound scientific approach and methodology, it may be possible for USCountVotes' project staff to develop statistical evidence in support of legal filings and serve as expert witnesses for candidates, regardless of party affiliation.
USCountVotes' website is at http://uscountvotes.org