Reply #30: Having been involved in getting legislation passed in my state

[truckin]

and participating in lobbying for HR550 this spring, I completely agree with what Kelvin wrote. I don't understand why passing HR550 will stop other activists from pursuing their goals of hand counted paper ballots only or other solutions through legal remedies. The argument that once the bill passes then everyone will believe that voting will have been fixed has some merit but not enough to discourage me from trying to pass this bill. As Kelvin has mentioned, everyone is focusing on the inadequacies of the audit portion of the bill. But what about the fact that this bill would require all of the software to be accessible? Wouldn't this provision of the bill be invaluable to computer experts who are trying to prove that machine fraud took place? The provision of the bill requiring paper records for all votes cast would be a huge upgrade in states like Maryland and Georgia. While the bill is not perfect it provides requirements that many states are avoiding.

If you believe that there should be no machines and only hand counted paper ballots, please work to propose this type of legislation. As an ex auditor, I believe that precinct based optical scan, with adequate audit provisions, is the best voting system available at this time. I would like to see all DREs banned by a federal law and I would work to get some type of legislation banning these voting machines passed at the state or federal level. However, if HR550 passes, I don't believe that it will hurt a movement that tries to ban DREs. The push for HR550, and for almost all of the other activities that are taking place regarding election reform, is being done by dedicated activists who are well informed about voting machines. I do not believe that these activists are going to stop fighting to improve the election process if HR550 passes.

Finally, everyone who does not believe in HR550 should use their energy to pursue the remedies that they believe will be the most effective instead of knocking HR550 and those who support it. This would be a much better use of your time and talent if your goal is too fix our broken election system.