Reply #28: Thanks for making all those points about the HR 550 audits.

[Bill Bored]

If cause is shown, then the EAC can require more audits, and you have just shown that there was cause in 57 races. (I don't think it's actually 78 since the ones with the smaller margins would be included in the 57. At least that's the way I read it.) So all a clever lawyer should have to do is consult the election results and a spreadsheet and "show cause." If the EAC won't do the audits, the states can.

I know the EAC can't be trusted to get things right but neither can some state officials. At least the EAC is bi-partisan though. How many states have bi-partisan election administration? Not many.

Look at Ohio 2004. That's what the authors were thinking about when they wrote this bill -- not the great state of New Hampshire where they want to live free or die and from what I hear, do hand recounts at the drop of a hat just for the fun of it. That's great but expecting that from the powers that be in Ohio and Florida and Georgia and Maryland and Virginia and Alabama and Texas and Pennsylvania and South Carolina and the rest of the paperless fake-election states is like asking Diebold to come up with a way to audit their DREs. The bottom line is that sometimes, folks just have to be told what to do.

The bill can be tweaked to specify who gets to do the audits and how they will be done fairly and without privatization. But you can't tweak anything if there's no paper to audit in the first place.

I'm sorry but I find the opposition to this bill to be unreasonable. Where were they when it was being written? They were right here asking for VVPBs and audits and supporting it for the most part -- and crying about that stolen election. Maybe they need a reminder of what that's like before they support it again.

Where will they be when the bill is being marked up in committee -- when the problems we envision can be prevented?

What constructive alternative legislation is being proposed other than at the state level? Most of that bares a pretty strong resemblance to HR 550 anyway. And some of that legislation has still not been passed, through no fault of the activists and others who supported it.

So what do we do? The states won't fix the problem. The voting system standards won't fix the problem. The hacking demos haven't fixed the problem. So do we just wait to grab some brass ring that might come along and allow us to get rid of all these systems and revert back to hand counted paper ballots, or work on making the stuff we have auditable and then actually audit it?

The viciousness with which this bill has been attacked is uncalled for.