MAKE SURE ALL OUR VOTES ARE COUNTED!

This is going to be one of the most important elections ever and whoever you vote for, it is imperative that everyone's vote count. However millions of voters will be voting on new electronic voting machines that, according to many computer professionals, are vulnerable to errors and hacking. (See http://www.verifiedvoting.org/  and http://wheresthepaper.org/ for more info.)
 

Only by passing HR2239 and S1980 will all states have verified voting - which would provide a paper trail and other needed reforms for the new electronic voting machines - by this election  http://www.verifiedvoting.org/legislation/

In addition, we need to pass HR4250 which will prevent people, on a national level, from being mistakenly being labeled as felons and purged from the voting rolls. This happened in Florida, and as a result, tens of thousands voters - predominantly African Americans - were wrongly purged. However, unless Congressman Bob Ney allows HR2239 and HR4250 to come to a vote within two weeks (the sooner the better) in his committee where it is currently being held, federal verified voting legislation will die.  Unfortunately, he is currently preventing these bills from coming to a vote, but if this vote happens, it will jumpstart the Senate legislation.

Please take these actions to save Verified Voting for all states this election
 

--Note: When contacting Congresspersons, phone calls and Faxes are taken more seriously than emails and will be noticed more quickly, but if you are unable to make calls or send faxes, please email--

Talking points include: (1)This is a non-partisan issue.  Errors and hacking can go both ways. (2)There have already been missing votes and other anomalies using these systems and they provide no way to do a recount (3)These bills give the disabled the choice on whether to use paper verification or not.  Some disability rights groups have taken huge grants from the makers of electronic voting machines (such as Diebold) which might influence their positions on these bills.

1. Contact House Committee Chairman Ney and ask him to let HR2239 and HR4250 be voted on in his committee - HE IS CURRENTLY PREVENTING THEM FROM COMING TO A VOTE (URGENT). Phone: (202) 225-6265 | Fax: (202) 225-3394 Email bobney@mail.house.gov.

2. Contact Your Congresspersons - 1-800-839-5276 and ask them to co-sponsor both HR2239 and HR4250. Go to http://Congress.org for email and fax info.

3. Contact both your Senators - If you've done it before, please do it again - 1-800-839-5276 - and ask them to co-sponsor S1980. Tell them it is better than the merger bill proposed by Senator Clinton because it does not have state exemptions. Also ask them to urge Senator Clinton to remove the state exemption language in the merger bill, or make it explicit that the state exemption provision only applies to lever machines (which was Clinton's intent for this exemption). Currently, the language of the state provision is so broad that it could potentially apply to any type of voting machine. See http://www.wheresthepaper.org/whattodo.html and scroll down to "federal legislation".

(Note: Try to call a few times a week since confusion about the Senate bill is stopping momentum for national Verified Voting). Go to
http://congress.org/congressorg/home/ for direct phone, Fax, and email info - just
put in zip code.)
 

4. For S1980 to pass, Senator Graham must push it. Ask Senator Graham to encourage other senators to support his original bill, S1980, and/or use his influence to change the merger bill to remove the state waiver provision or make it crystal clear that this waiver only applies to lever machines. Phone (202) 224-3041 - Fax (202) 224-2237 - Email http://graham.senate.gov/email.html.

5. Contact Hillary Clinton at (202) 224-4451 or Fax her at (202) 228-0282 or
email http://clinton.senate.gov/email_form.html and urge her to remove state waiver from her contribution to the merger legislation (S2313) or make it crystal clear that the exception only applies to lever machines. Due to the way the bill is  currently written, states with machines that should be covered by this
legislation might instead be granted a waiver. S1980 remains the best alternative. But if Clinton changed the merger bill in the above way, it would become the best alternative.

6. Peter Johnson has a wonderful action to remote fax Kerry with an email address. (For sample letter click here.) Just make sure that if you get a busy signal, you receive a message telling you whether or not your Fax was sent (the Fax will make 3 attempts to send before it gives up in which case you should try again later).  Encourage Kerry to either support the Verified Voting legislation or use his influence to urge Senator Clinton to modify her merger bill as stated in #5 above.

Put this in your email's "send" box and the email will turn into a free fax: