[Voterescue] URGENT Call to Action TODAY, Tues. 9/4, to STOP H.R. 811!!

[Vickie Karp]

Date correction:  That is, TUESDAY, SEPT. 4th:  TODAY!!!!!!!


  Holt: "It's no longer my bill."

  In a town meeting in his New Jersey home district in July,
  Congressman Rush Holt made some disturbing statements which leave no
  doubt that H.R. 811 has become a bill that protects the interests of
  software corporations over the rights of citizens. In fact the Holt
  bill is NOT the Holt bill anymore! It has become ‘Microsoft 811’!

  Mr. Holt: "The bill has been changed since I introduced it. It's no
  longer my bill -- well, it's still my bill but it's been marked up in
  committee."

  Further he added:

  "Unfortunately, the committee that made this change heard from
  Microsoft. They heard that Voice.

  The point is Microsoft did lobby strongly. It wasn't just Microsoft.
  It was everybody who—"

  Audience question: “Diebold?”

  Holt: "No, it was software -- the software industry."

  There is something seriously wrong when a U.S. Congressman can say
  that an election reform bill he introduced was significantly changed
  through the lobbying effort of Microsoft and the software
  industry....that their voices were heard! 

  Since when was the rule passed in Congress that whoever lobbies
  hardest gets to determine the content of U.S. legislation?

  When a U.S. Congressman can agree that “the software industry won!” —
  as Mr. Holt admitted at the July meeting, we have a critical problem
  that threatens the foundation of our Democracy.

  This bill is no longer the Holt bill...he said so himself. Clearly,
  the bill is now ‘Microsoft 811!’

  When Congressman Holt — the election reform leader in Congress — puts
  his trust in an audit that many experts say is inadequate, when he
  advocates for questionable paper trails linked to secretly programmed
  machines and then adds “ I don't care what Microsoft does with their
  electronics in there” (as he did), it begins to look like our
  elections are a game of Russian roulette.

  Where once the bill called for complete openness, full public
  disclosure of all software used to count OUR votes, now we have the
  opposite. ‘Microsoft 811’ enshrines in LAW the right of corporations
  to privatize our election through control of programming secrecy,
  prohibiting public disclosure of what’s inside OUR voting machines!
  Only under strict conditions, people selected for very specific
  purposes can review the software, but only after signing
  non-disclosure agreements. Thus, what should be a contractual
  agreement is enshrined in federal law.

  When you vote on Election Day you will not know what is happening
  inside that electronic machine. Under ‘Microsoft 811’, on Election
  Night the results reported will be generated from those secretly
  programmed electronic bytes
.from the very machines that top security
  experts have labeled “fatally flawed.” Can we trust the results? How
  will we know?

  A few months ago in New York State, during the hectic closing days of
  the legislative session, Microsoft along with other software
  vendors/lobbyists tried to sneak through provisions to destroy some
  of the strictest, hardest won, voting security legislation in the
  country by attaching those provisions to another bill which was
  simply about a minor change in the primary. Fortunately activists
  were vigilant and raised an alarm. Thousands of New Yorkers called
  their legislators in the next two days and the vendors’ effort was
  defeated. Citizens can win if they speak out.

  Now we have a far bigger challenge. Microsoft and other software
  companies are trying to get another bill passed that would protect
  their rights over the rights of the public. It is up to We the People
  to say “No” 
 say it loud and clear till OUR VOICES – not the
  corporations’ – are heard and heeded.

  There are more problems with ‘Microsoft 811’ than just the assault on
  the public’s right to know. See
  http://www.votersunite.org/info/hr811Report.pdf . Right now it must
  be stopped, and then we must demand that Congress pass a “stripped
  down” bill focused on the most vital steps to better secure election
  2008. We MUST BAN DREs and provide states funding to replace them
  with systems that use paper ballots, marked by hand or by accessible
  ballot-marking devices, and counted by hand or by automatic
  tabulator. And any time we use computers to tabulate votes, we must
  have statistically significant hand-count audits to check the
  accuracy of the machines then continually improve the entire
  system.with citizen involvement.

  People “say” Congress will never ban DREs. But where’s the proof?
  Congress’ reason for being is to serve “We the People.” It is up to
  all of us to act. So, call your Representative and engage at least
  ten other people to call or fax. Call until you are have been heard.
  Tell Representatives to vote NO on H.R. 811 and to insist on a real
  election reform bill that bans DREs and restores to our elections the
  requirement of true separate and independent checks and balances
  which can be open to the American people. Only our vote should be
  secret.

  Abraham Lincoln said, “Elections belong to the people. It is their
  decision.”

  Would that Congress heard these words rather than the words of
  ‘Microsoft & Co.’

  So now it's time to have our voices heard, and make it OUR decision.

  Microsoft 811 will be on the floor for a vote this week. It is vital
  that you act now. We are up against some powerful interests but New
  York citizens won, so can all of us
if each of us takes action. Stop
  Microsoft 811! Then Ban DREs!

  To get telephone number of your representative or get info:
  http://www.congress.org

  Mary Ann Gould

  Coalition for Voting Integrity

  “Voice of the Voters” Radio & Internet

  www.voiceofthevoters.org for archived programs
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