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Why HR 811 Is Good
For Pennsylvania
By Marybeth Kuznik
Executive Director, VotePA
Pennsylvania is truly the Keystone
State in many ways. Geographically, we are centrally located
where the Midwest, the Mid-Atlantic, southern New England, and
The South all meet. In culture and business our diversity reflects
the nation as a whole. Pennsylvania has two world-class major
urban centers, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, but agriculture remains
our #1 industry. We have one of the highest numbers of over-65
seniors of any state but we are also home to millions of young
adults and growing families. We have descendants of the original
settlers with family in the region for hundreds of years living
in the same communities as recent immigrants from around the
globe.
Politically Pennsylvania is
also a keystone in that we are one of the most swinging of the
swing states. We are deep blue in some areas, ruby red in others,
and no party or candidate can take a win in Pennsylvania for
granted. As such, with our 21 electoral votes we are one of the
most targeted states by media, candidates, and just perhaps
by those who might want to perpetrate an election fraud.
In response to the Help America
Vote Act, Pennsylvania has deployed a hodgepodge of some eleven
different voting systems. Of our sixty-seven counties, only nine
have chosen a solid, non-blended system of optical scanner and
accessible ballot marker, and many of those counties tend to
be smaller in population. All through the purchase process for
HAVA compliant machines vendors were fiercely pushing their higher
profit Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) systems throughout the
state. A full fifty-four counties, including the huge counties
that contain Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, ended up purchasing
paperless DREs, some of which are currently the most notorious
machines for lost votes and bad design.
Like many of the so-called
swing states, Pennsylvania has been unable to come to grips with
the reality that our voting systems are basically insecure and
unverifiable. Even after numerous reports of serious problems
our county and state officials still parrot soothing words, proclaiming
that we have had three "smooth elections" in 2006 and
2007 since the introduction of the new machines.
Pennsylvania's Department of
State has taken the position that all currently available voter-verified
paper printer options for DREs violate the secrecy of the ballot
and thus are illegal under our Pennsylvania state constitution.
Our key voting system examiner, Michael Shamos, is nationally
notorious as one of the few remaining computer scientists who
discount the need for paper verification by voters. Our Governor
Ed Rendell personally votes in Philadelphia on ancient, failure-prone,
paperless Danaher 1242 machines and he has many times publicly
stated how well he likes "the buttons."
Amidst this atmosphere of denial
and lack of knowledge our state and local officials have seemingly
gone out of their way to avoid purchasing "old fashioned"
optical scan systems and the fully legal voter-marked and verified
paper ballot they would provide.
As if all this were not bad
enough, Pennsylvania and its counties are facing a severe budget
crunch and financial deficit. It is extremely unlikely that officials
will designate additional state or local funds to improve Pennsylvania
voting systems unless they are compelled to do so and full funding
comes from federal sources to fix the mess created by HAVA. Although
there are several bills proposed in the Pennsylvania General
Assembly regarding voter-verified paper ballots and related issues,
none are likely to move at all in our state unless and until
the issue receives federal level resolution and funding.
With all these factors in play,
Pennsylvania election integrity activists highly anticipated
Congressman Rush Holt's latest incarnation of his "Voter
Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act." The finished
bill was introduced in February and carries many innovations
that would provide changes Pennsylvania needs. No bill is perfect
but the basic premise of HR 811 is sound, and makes great sense
for a swing state like Pennsylvania.
HR 811 provisions such as standards
to end conflicts of interest between vendors and testing labs,
payments for lab fees through a third-party governmental escrow
account with public disclosure of test results, public disclosure
of software code, requirements for emergency paper ballots to
allow voting in the event that the machines fail, strengthening
chain of custody of voting machines with no more "sleepovers"
of machines at insecure private homes, prohibition of wireless
devices in machines, and preservation of a private right of action
will all go far to improve our situation.
Of course the biggest and most
publicized change HR 811 would provide is the requirement for
voter-verified paper ballots on all voting systems, with routine
manual audits of all federal elections. This is a most desperately
needed protection in a highly targeted swing state like Pennsylvania.
The ideal goal here would be to get rid of paperless DRE machines
and replace them with more accessible, auditable, recountable,
and affordable optical scan systems.
Some activists have criticized
HR 811 for its lack of language that would reach that goal by
directly banning the use of DRE machines in federal elections.
But from our lobbying efforts among the Pennsylvania delegation
in Congress and in our state legislature, many members of VotePA
are keenly aware that any bill containing an outright ban of
DRE machines is very unlikely to pass.
HR 811 would have the more
politically palatable effect of disallowing DRE machines through
the back door, the same way that the original HAVA "banned"
our beloved Pennsylvania lever machines. The requirements for
voter-verified paper ballots in HR 811 would mean that our state
would have to get paper. But our Pennsylvania Constitution's
requirement for a secret ballot would make it virtually impossible
that any of the currently available DRE / roll printer systems
could be used to comply. Thus, as of now this would mean replacement
of DREs with currently available voter-marked paper ballot systems
using optical scanners and highly accessible ballot markers.
We know that our Pennsylvania
budget crunch meant that our state legislators, election officials,
and many others are deeply concerned about the funding of any
changes made to our voting systems. With no state or local funds
available, they are reticent to replace the DRE machines our
state has recently spent so much to purchase. But HR 811 intends
to fully fund the changes it mandates, with over $300 million
earmarked for changes in fiscal year 2008 alone, and more beyond
that.
In May, an excellent version
of HR 811 was reported out of the Committee on House Administration
and was headed for the House floor. Unfortunately congressional
leaders chose to make additional changes to the bill in negotiation
with certain interests, and the resulting Manager's Amendment
that will be introduced on the floor of the US House is not as
strong. It allows certain delays that were not in the reported
Committee markup, and contains other provisions that are less
functional and less cost effective than the earlier version.
Despite these changes, VotePA
still considers the good in HR 811 to far outweigh these weaknesses.
With its tremendous initial support hard-won through the work
of thousands of activists over three Congresses, HR 811 is still
the only vehicle that has the impetus and attention to bring
the issue of election integrity to the national forefront and
make changes for the better in time for the 2008 presidential
election.
Further delay to look for more
'improvement' or the perfect bill will risk 35 million voters
having to throw their presidential votes down paperless DRE machines
come November of next year. Without HR 811, hundreds of millions
of votes will be counted electronically with no audit whatsoever
in this all-important election to choose our next President and
the 111th Congress. And additional delay will buy time for DRE
manufacturers to come up with more "band-aid" add-on
products that will be pushed to keep DREs in place and further
line their company pockets at taxpayer expense.
As one of the most targeted
swing states, Pennsylvania simply cannot afford to face the 2008
presidential election at the mercy of paperless DRE machines
in fifty-four of our most populous counties.
To prevent these disturbing
scenarios and to improve the accuracy of our elections and public
confidence in them, we believe that supporting and passing HR
811 is the right thing to do for Pennsylvania and for all of
our nation.
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For more information, visit
http://www.VotePA.us
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