Reply #13: I don't know about lobbying Congress NOW. There are grave dangers

[Peace Patriot]

in Bush's "pod people" in Congress addressing "election reform" in any way--after what they did with HAVA. Their purpose would be to further corrupt and destroy our election system, and PREVENT reform. One of the biggest dangers is that they will further erode or completely revoke the states' Constitutional power over election systems, thus stopping all the grass roots state/local movements for real election reform. Another, an outright mandating of riggable electronic voting systems and outlawing paper ballots, so that a state with a paper ballot system (such as Oregon--mail-in ballots) or states who want to chuck the riggable machines and return temporarily or permanently to paper ballots would be forbidden to do so.

This illegitimate and unlawful Congress will never vote for real election reform--and they will take any good bill that comes along and thoroughly @#$%! it up. And if they see a big election reform lobbying effort in DC, they may feel the need to act pre-emptively to prevent reform.

I'm torn on it. On the one hand, we DO need to educate the public--for whom the issue has been black-holed. On the other, Congress is currently a very dangerous institution, and we really don't want what THEY would do.

I think that verified voting activists should get all the publicity they can--for public education purposes--but quietly go to democracy-friendly legislators like Russ Holt and John Conyers, and tell them: If you can't prevent bad amendments to a good bill, drop it. Wait for more favorable circumstances--and put energy/support into state/local election reform movements.