Verified Voting - Lobby Days: June 9-14 in D.C.

[reprehensor]

Lobby Days and Democracy Days: June 9-14 in D.C.

JUNE 9-14 LOBBYING EVENTS IN WASHINGTON, D.C.

Calling All VerifiedVoting.org Activists!

SAVE THE DATES - JUNE 9-14, 2005

Join us for three important events designed to pass verified voting legislation in the U.S. Congress and prepare organizers for future lobbying in the states:

1) Lobby Days for H.R.550:

On June 9-10, 2005 a coalition of citizens and grassroots organizations will join forces in Washington D.C. to garner strong bi-partisan support for H.R.550, Rush Holt's (D-NJ) bill that VerifiedVoting.org has called the "gold standard" of verified voting bills. The event, organized by Common Cause, Rock the Vote, VoteTrustUSA, VerifiedVoting.org, and others, includes a Thursday night reception with Representative Holt, a tireless leader in the struggle for voter-verified paper ballots and integrity in the U.S. electoral process.

Rep. Holt introduced the "Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2005" on February 2, 2005. On introduction, there were 50 original cosponsors; at this writing there are 132 cosponsors for this bill. VerifiedVoting.org encourages all members of the House to cosponsor H.R.550.

2) Democracy Days in Support of S.330:

On Monday, June 13, and Tuesday, June 14, VerifiedVoting.org is organizing an advocacy opportunity focused on the Senate in support of S.330.

The "Voting Integrity and Verification Act of 2005" (VIVA 2005), was introduced on February 9, 2005, by Senator Ensign of Nevada. VerifiedVoting.org supports the VIVA 2005 bill and encourages all members of the Senate to become cosponsors.

HOW TO RSVP
For Lobby Days and/or Democracy Days--

H.R.550 is our pick in the House and S.330 is our pick in the Senate.
For more info, see http://www.verifiedvoting.org/legis

Come to D.C. and insist Congress move these bills out of committee and bring them to the floor for a vote! More information will be available as June gets closer, but keep the dates June 9-14, 2005, free on your calendar. Lobbying materials, talking points, and other guidance will be provided.

Please RSVP as soon as possible to our contacts page. Fill in the form with your full name, email address, state of residence, and congressional district (if you can); whether you can make it for all or any of the Congressional visits - indicate that the RSVP is for Lobby Days! Please RSVP at http://www.verifiedvoting.org/contact/

3) National Leadership Workshop and Strategy Session

Vote Trust USA is sponsoring a National Leadership Workshop and Strategy Session for state and local verified voting organizers in Washington, D.C. This event will follow the Lobby Days for H.R.550 on Friday evening - Sunday morning, June 10-12, 2005. For this weekend event only, please RSVP to Kevin Zeese at
[e-mail]

Thanks for all of your efforts to obtain verified voting for us all!

PS: Again, for Lobby Days or Democracy Days, please RSVP at
http://www.verifiedvoting.org/contact/

[dragonkeep]

1. Find out if your state has made recounting paper ballots illegal...

Florida has. I cannot think of ANYTHING that can excuse this.

Optical scan voting machines leave a paper trail. As of now, in Florida, it is illegal to count the paper ballots to verify the vote. Folks, it won't matter if we have a paper trail if we can't use it. Check your state....this is coming in under the radar and there are changes afoot.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0505/S00381.htm

"New regs: Counting paper ballots forbidden

Most states prohibit elections officials from checking on optical scan tallies by examining the paper ballots. In Washington, Secretary of State Sam Reed declared such spontaneous checkups to be "unauthorized recounts" and prohibited them altogether. New Florida regulations will forbid counting paper ballots, even in recounts, except in highly unusual circumstances. Without paper ballot hand-counts, the hacks demonstrated below show that optical-scan elections can be destroyed in seconds."