VoteTrustUSA Strongly Endorses S.3943 And HR 6187 - Legislation That Would Provide Voters With The Option Of Casting A Paper Ballot

Text of S. 3943   Text of HR 6187 

In response to widespread concern about the reliability of electronic voting systems, legislation was introduced today by Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) Chris Dodd (D-CT), and Russ Feingold (D-WI) that would provide funding to jurisdictions for the printing of emergency paper ballots. Rep. Rush Holt introduced a similar mesasure, HR 6187, in the House.

Growing out of an effort initiated by Brad Friedman of BradBlog and Velvet Revolution, and endorsed by Common Cause, VotersUnite.org and numerous other election integrity and public interest groups, this emergency provision offers incentive for counties to provide paper ballots in the case of machine malfunction and for voters that prefer to vote on paper ballots.

VoteTrustUSA strongly endorses this important bill and encourages immediate action in Congress to pass this bill quickly to allow states tiime to prepare for the November general election. All voters are encouraged to contact their Representatives and Senators urging them to support this common sense legislation.

The legislation cites the report of the National Reserach Council, headed by former Attorney General Richard Thornburgh and former Governor Richard Celeste that concluded that "it will be essential this year that jurisdictions have backup and contingency plans that anticipate awide range of possible failures in their electronic voting systems". Following from this conclusion the bill calls for contingency paper ballots to provide a sufficient backup plan for the gailure of uch systems.

The legislation is structured as an amendment of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) and would provide 75 cents for each backup paper ballot that local officials print.

HR 6187 is identical to S. 3943 except that a clarifying clause was added requiring that contingency paper ballots should be counted as an official paper ballot and not as a provisional ballot. this additional clause addresses a sitiuation that arose in Maryland's recent primary in which voters unable to vote because the machines were unavailable were forced to vote on provisional ballots, causing considerable additional and unecessary administrative work and doubt as to whether the vote would be counted. 

Name: carl weiler - 2006-09-27 06:23:32 Comment: At last someone is responding to the train wreck. Lets hope the members of congress in Washington understand that this small sum is insurance and act on this important step now because the window of opportunity is closing fast.