Hearing in House on Voting Machines today

[TayTay]

From the C-Span web-site:

House Committee

Voting Machine Standards

Administration
Science
Washington, District of Columbia (United States)
ID: 193488 - 07/19/2006 - 2:00 - No Sale

Boehlert, Sherwood L. U.S. Representative, R-NY
Ehlers, Vernon J. U.S. Representative, R-MI
Davidson, Donetta Commissioner, U.S. Election Assistance Commission
Jeffrey, William A. Director, National Institute of Standards and Technology

The House Administration Committee and the House Science Committee hold a joint hearing to review new federal voluntary standards for voting equipment, which were issued late last year, to see if they are likely to improve the accuracy and security of voting, and to see if states are likely to adopt the standards.

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You can pick up the live feed for this on C-Span 3 which is available on this link: http://www.c-span.org/homepage.asp

Posted in GD at: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1671829&mesg_id=1671829

The Repub hearing is about these standards: http://www.eac.gov/VVSG%20Volume_I.pdf
Particularly the stuff in Appendix C: pages 206-228

[whometense]

1. Salon report on the hearing

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/07/20/voting/

Taking the paper trail to Washington

July 20, 2006 | WASHINGTON -- White T-shirts are a significant departure from the standard dress code in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill. So when a couple dozen activists walked into a joint meeting of the Science and Administration committees Wednesday wearing bleached cotton instead of the typical pantsuits and striped ties, it was not surprising that someone dispatched a Capitol Police officer to stand guard in case things got out of hand.

The T-shirts were imprinted with bold black letters that read "Got Paper?" or "Got Audits?" -- coded, chest-high messages that were directed at lawmakers to express the widespread concern that new computerized voting machines can be tampered with to swing elections. The activists had come to Washington to push legislation that would mandate voter-verifiable paper records for every ballot cast in the nation, a reversal of a recent trend toward touch-screen computers that only tally votes electronically. It didn't matter that the House committees did not plan to discuss the issue of ballot paper trails. "Hearings are all about theater," explained Susannah Goodman of the liberal election reform group Common Cause, in a pre-hearing meeting with the activists. "We're hijacking it."

As it turned out, the activists' point came across loud and clear to both Republicans and Democrats without hardly a peep from the gallery. The Administration Committee chairman, Vernon J. Ehlers, a Michigan Republican, opened the hearing by addressing the casually dressed crowd in the back of the room. "I notice a number of members in the audience wearing T-shirts showing their support for the paper trial," Ehlers said after his opening statement. "I am trying to arrange a separate hearing on the paper trail." This hearing, he explained, would focus on existing voting machine standards and testing guidelines.

But one by one, Ehlers' Republican and Democratic colleagues disobeyed his instructions by quizzing an all-star panel of election technology experts on the prospect of requiring paper records from every vote cast by computer. "When I had my week off I heard from an overwhelming number of constituents on the paper trail issue," explained California Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald, the joint committee's ranking Democrat. "Voters are very concerned that their vote is not being counted."

(more...)

The peoples' message seems to be coming through loud and clear, for those who are interested in listening.

[demdiva]

2. OK dumb question, but why can't there be both paper and e-ballots???

You go into a booth, vote and the machine prints out two copies of your ballot for you and you verify that your votes was recorded correctly. You keep one and put the other in the ballot box. The e-ballots are used for quick election night returns and the hard copies are used to verify the vote or for a recount. Sure it's not the greenest option, but I think it would work.