More on Kucinich's 6200 bill: ALL PAPER!! Hope this isn't a dupe.

[Stevepol]

This article tells about Dennis's entering the fray in behalf of all paper. He's been educated, evidently in part by the recent conference in OH. This is from VotersUnite.



http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/10/03/18317658.php

It's not who votes that counts.

It's who counts the votes.
ALL PAPER, NO MACHINES ~~ IN CONGRESS !!! : HR 6200, BY KUCINICH


This is quite a stunner: Kucinich has just introduced legislation, HR 6200, to AMEND H.A.V.A and rid us of machines: mandated paper ballots only, hand counted and POSTED at the PRECINCT level, for one and all to see.

This is the whole enchilada for Election Reform, as far as we can tell. It is as close to ideal as anything in our dearest dreams. I had no idea this was being taken that seriously, this early, and this immediately put before Congress, but thought it was farther off on the horizon. Even if the Republicans shoot it down in bogus fashion, it forces their hand, at a time when they are busy contending with their damage control, and puts this one and only true reform of voting on the map. Apparently some of our reps have been listening to us. There are also some of the people in our voting groups in Ohio, elsewhere., not all, but we have been fighting a lot of the others for two and a half years now, to get this on the front burner. All Paper, all People counted, all Posted at the Precinct level, with full access to participation by public and neutral observers.

exactly, point for point, what my article was about two months ago at http://www.opednews.com . In each key detail. Of course, the writer ~ Mark Crispin Miller ~~ whose post was the object of my commentary, is at the Cleveland conference and a key speaker there this week, with several other allies of ours, and our people are taking this battle directly to them. Kucinich attended it, at Tri-C College, near my Union HQ, since that is Dennis' district, and the email below reflects much of the excitement and encouragement after Kucinich's speech. Following Lynn Landes' trailblazing work on this subject, and her unsuccessful but valiant court battle to ban machines, finally dismissed by the U.S. Supreme Court, we also have been carrying that torch, insisting this all Paper and People voting process is the ONLY way we can secure our election integrity, and that was after studying the way Canada has been doing it for quite some time, just like this, all the official Canadian documents, links, are posted at http://www.banvotingmachines.org, Landes' site of key research. ( Interesting too, when I spoke to Kucinich, tete-a-tete, three years ago at Laguna Woods Clubhouse 3, across the street from our family bungalow there, I pointedly asked him about voting fraud, and all he said was, "I'm supporting paper trails," and then kind of blew me off, capping an otherwise friendly five minute schmooze. But now he's finally plugging, with John Conyers, McKinney, Maxine Waters, et al., the ONE thing we've been asking for, since then, these last two years, and more: All Paper and People Process, and this would solve our election problems, at least the voting integrity part of it. ) Fraud will always be an issue, in the ol' U.S. of A. ( or as Garrison Keillor called them recently, The United Corporations of America ) but this proposed legislation is the equivalent of Ivory Soap, at least as far as the visible process goes: 99.44% pure................

For all of us who have left our other lives years ago, to focus on this, this has to be hyper-ventilatingly exciting. Yes, Virginia, I think, this time, I WILL....hold my breath! ~JE


Here's the earlier DU post pleading for support for the measure. We should do all we can to support this bill regardless of the outcome.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x451552

Link to the article:
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/10/03/18317658.php

[kster]

1. KNR.nt

[kster]

2. More here..........

Dennis Kucinich, D, OH. He made the remarks below and then announced that he’s introduced H.R. 6200, a bill to guarantee that the 2006 election will be conducted on “hand counted, paper ballots, counted and posted at the precinct level” with the process open to all to observe. This was a real stunner. There is some legislation out there on stop gap measures but this is the whole 9 yards, the ultimate in election intgrity - Machines are Gone under this legislation…GONE.

H.R. 6200

Title: To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 ato require States to conduct Presidential elections using paper ballots and to count those ballots by hand, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Rep Kucinich, Dennis J. (introduced 9/27/2006) Cosponsors (19)
Latest Major Action: 9/27/2006 Referred to House committee.
COSPONSORS(19), ALPHABETICAL : (Sort: by date)
Rep Brown, Corrine - 9/27/2006 Rep Clay, Wm. Lacy - 9/27/2006
Rep Conyers, John, Jr. - 9/27/2006 Rep Filner, Bob - 9/27/2006
Rep Grijalva, Raul M. - 9/27/2006 Rep Gutierrez, Luis V. - 9/27/2006
Rep Hastings, Alcee L. - 9/27/2006 Rep Hinchey, Maurice D. - 9/27/2006
Rep Jackson, Jesse L., Jr. - 9/27/2006 Rep Jackson-Lee, Sheila - 9/27/2006
Rep Johnson, Eddie Bernice - 9/27/2006 Rep Kaptur, Marcy - 9/27/2006
Rep Lee, Barbara - 9/27/2006 Rep Maloney, Carolyn B. - 9/27/2006
Rep McDermott, Jim - 9/27/2006 Rep McKinney, Cynthia A. - 9/27/2006
Rep Solis, Hilda L. - 9/27/2006 Rep Waters, Maxine - 9/27/2006
Rep Woolsey, Lynn C. - 9/27/2006

Kucinich quotes from speech…
“One of the most important meetings going on in this state maybe the country.” Referring to “We Count 2006″

“people are deeply concerned about the election process.”

“You’re holding the light of democracy for the whole country.”

“our ability to have control over our institutions” is at risk when the procedures of elections are
controlled…

Referring to Ohio’s disastrous 2004 election he said “We understand why there is such great concern”

Without free and fair elections, “everything is at risk…a cause that’s so important, it’s a measure of the courage of the people” who call attention to the problem.

“We have a mission to make sure that elections are on the level.”

“There are lingering questions about the 2004 election and there ought to be.”

“Even verified voter paper trails are not an adequate solution to safeguarding our elections.”

http://benfrank.net/blog/category/blog/

[bleever]

3. Kickety,

and rec'd, of course.

[2008]

4. k & r (nt)

[Bjorn Against]

5. I believe this bill is meant to put Republicans on notice...

I think probably most of us would agree that the Democratic Party has not challenged election fraud nearly enough. I believe Kucinich introduced this bill knowing that while it is unlikely to pass through the Republican controlled House, it also puts the Republicans on notice that somebody knows what is going on and they are going to pay attention to the voting machines.

[kster]

6. Kucinich, put both parties on notice

The PEOPLE know the game, Dem and Repub Politicians, Both parties REMAIN SILENT about the SECRET VOTE COUNTING MACHINES, because BOTH PARTIES want to remain in power, Both parties know that if they don't control the vote count, that there may be two or three parties in the US, And BOTH the Dem and Repub Politicians do not want that (period)

THATS WHY THEY BOTH, D&R, REMAIN SILENT ABOUT THESE SECRET VOTE COUNTING MACHINES TO THIS DAY!

[diva77]

7. how does his bill address the issue of

accessibility to disabled community?

[Stevepol]

8. The machines remain hackable, totally secret, whether they're used

by the disabled or the un-disabled.

This is a straw man put up by the supporters of electronic secret voting, mainly Diebold thru large contributions to organizations for the blind, as just another reason to install their vote-theft machines.

From what I've heard, Vote-Pad is a perfectly acceptable, non-electronic alternative for accommodating disabled voters while providing paper. I'm sure there are or will very soon be other methods as well.

The fact remains: When the vote is counted in secret without verification, you can't have a democracy. If we move into the land of no democracy led by the blind, we still don't have a democracy no matter how good a few disabled folks feel about it. We'll both still be in the ditch, blind and non-blind.

[diva77]

10. I agree. That's why I'm raising this issue. The amendment has

to be more realistic and address the trap built into HAVA - if you're going to have all paper ballots, then you need to override the rigged "accessibility" clauses and state that there is no technology at this time that can provide a way for all disabled voters to vote unassisted and that those voters must place election transparency and accuracy (i.e. use of paper ballots) as the highest priority and if they feel that they are being disenfranchised in their own situation, they should report any incident to government authorities (including social services).

[OnTheOtherHand]

13. I'm still thinking about this

In principle, HAVA doesn't have to be a trap that kills paper ballots. California dinged Vote-PAD, but as far as I know it is still approved in Wisconsin.

But I think you're probably right that in order for a paper ballot law to be enacted and implemented, it would have to address the accessibility issue directly. Hmm. (I'm not committed to 100% hand counts myself, but accessibility is a big issue regardless.)

"...and that those voters must place election transparency and accuracy (i.e. use of paper ballots) as the highest priority ..."

Maybe this is a quibble, but would one write that sort of thing into a law?

[OnTheOtherHand]

9. it's pretty easy to quote the relevant language here

`(7) SPECIAL RULES FOR PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS- Notwithstanding any other provision of this subsection, in the case of a regularly scheduled general election for the electors of President and Vice President (beginning with the election in November 2008), the following rules shall apply:

`(A) The State shall conduct the election using only paper ballots.

`(B) The State shall ensure that the number of ballots cast at a precinct or equivalent location which are placed inside a single box or similar container does not exceed 500.

`(C) The ballots cast at a precinct or equivalent location shall be counted by hand by election officials at the precinct, and a representative of each political party with a candidate on the ballot, as well as any interested member of the public, may observe the officials as they count the ballots. The previous sentence shall not apply with respect to provisional ballots cast under section 302(a).'.

The bill does one other thing that may not have been mentioned here yet: it moves the observation of Washington's Birthday to election day in presidential election years. In other words, it makes presidential election days national holidays. That's it, that's all. Nice short bill. (My students might wish we were discussing this bill today instead of the Military Commissions Act, which is much longer, more complicated, and may I say more depressing.)

This bill doesn't alter any other provision of HAVA. I won't opine on whether Vote-PAD meets HAVA requirements (and/or Just Works), but it uses paper ballots, so as far as I can see it's unaffected by this bill.

It is very unlikely that this bill will be acted on before the end of the session. (Personally I think it's unlikely that it will ever be enacted, but unlikely things do happen.) So if folks have ideas about how to improve it, probably there is time.

[diva77]

11. thanks for posting this

(I put my idea about what's needed in post #10)

[OnTheOtherHand]

12. I will put in a word there ;) n/t