HR 811, the bill in Congress to require vote-counting machines to produce a paper trail, will not be taken up in the House until September 17 at the earliest. Congressman Rush Holt (D-N.J.) had hoped it would pass the House this week, but it has fierce opposition, both from elections officials who don’t want a paper trail, and from activists who want to eventually eliminate all electronic vote-counting machines. Thus the bill has enemies from both directions.
The fact that HR 811 has opposition from both directions shows that it is a GOOD bill. It has often been said that a good and wise compromise is one that leaves neither side completely satisfied.
LET’S HAVE A VOTE ON HR 811, Congress! No more stalling!
I’m with Marybeth. HR-811’s auditing capacity is still strong, with more coverage than in earlier bills.
While it’s not the DRE ban, or casino-like clamp-down on computerized voting machines some would like, having a paper audit trail in ’08 would expose any widespread inaccuracy/fraud, and be a huge relief to many of us, given our current “black box” situation.
Let’s Get It Up For A Vote!