KILLING HR 811 "SOFTLY WITH THEIR LOVE"

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

KILLING HR 811 "SOFTLY WITH THEIR LOVE"

The head of the Anti Paper Movement, the NASS (National Association of Secretaries of State) will be working very hard to kill HR 811.

The NASS lists voting machine companies like Diebold and Hart Intercivic as "corporate affiliates" http://www.nass.org/corpaffiliates/directory.html

Below is their statement to congress,and below that is my "interpretation".

Here is what the NASS will tell our lawmakers, in order to KILL HR 811:

NASS Approach to Federal Legislation
Approved February 11, 2007

The nation’s Secretaries of State believe that our federal
and state governments must work in cooperation to serve
the citizens of the United States. To facilitate the appropriate
balance for an equal and effective partnership, the National
Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) urges federal
officials to adhere to the following guidelines when developing laws and regulations:

1. Members of Congress should respect our country’s legal and historical
distinctions in federal and state sovereignty and avoid preemptions
of state authority when drafting federal legislation.

2. Federal legislation should include a reasonable timeframe
for implementing state requirements or programs.

3. Federal legislation that affects the office and duties of
the Secretaries of State should be drafted with input
from NASS or a representative sample of the Secretaries
of State who would be impacted by the bill.

4. Federal legislation that mandates changes to state
laws or regulations should include full funding
to support those changes.

5. Federal legislation should not curtail state innovation
and authority solely for the sake of creating uniform
methods among the states; all legislation should grant
states maximum flexibility in determining methodologies
properly and effectively carrying out the duties of
Secretaries of State, including the protection of voting rights.

http://www.democracyfornewhampshire.com/node/view/3515

WHAT IT REALLY MEANS:

We in North Carolina have played this game before, over and over and over again

"More time, more money and more choices"

These are election official code words for:

-this law cannot be enacted in time for 2008 Presidential Election
-give us a few years to try to kill this thing,
-give us gigantic sums of money to pay for lots of bells and whistles (black-mail)
-keep standards lax so that Diebold et all can sell their current inventory, and
-keep the door open to paperless verification systems and encryption schemes

Number 2, the "timeframe" will be especially helpful to anti paper forces.

Lawmakers will be told that there is no way that states can upgrade or change voting
equipment in time for the 08 election. (this was the tactic used over and over in NC)

Number 5, "innovation" - this was used over and over in North Carolina
by election officials to keep the door open to paperless systems and
"alternative verification systems."
It also was used as an argument to weaken standards so that Diebold could stay in the bidding.

To lawmakers, allowing "innovation" sounds like a reasonable concept.

In North Carolina, County Commissioners and Election Directors argued to the
Governor for "more time, more money and more choices:

"The Association continues to advocate for
more time, more money and more choices
for counties to implement the requirements
of S223, The Public Confidence in Elections...

"The North Carolina General Assembly
did not provide enough funds or enough
time for counties to purchase new elections
equipment to meet new state and federal
elections standards,"

http://web.archive.org/web/20060215092826/http://www.ncacc.org/votingequipment_120905.html

Anti paper forces will do everything they can to simply run out the clock on this law,
rendering it moot.

In the wake of defeating HR 811, the anti paper forces will be better able to ram through the "certification" of paperless verification systems and other "innovations".

NC only passed our law on the very last day of the legislative session.

[helderheid]

1. K & R !! Please K & R this other thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=274024&mesg_id=274024

[troubleinwinter]

2. Recommend this!

[Stevepol]

3. Where are the R's??

[bonito]

4. K&R!

[tbyg52]

5. CHOICES? I'll give them a choice!

Paper ballots, hand counted.

Edited to add:

With cameras watching (now *there's* a proper use of technology) and the results posted on the door!

And election day made a holiday, so we all can participate without financial hardship.