NAtional: Rep. Holt To Offer New Election Reform Proposal
http://www.votetrustusa....mp;id=2682&Itemid=26

Actually, although the details are sketchy, what there is just makes the much-touted core provisions of Holt's original H.R.811 truly optional... it's the Hoyer version writ large, but with funding for the states that opt in:

"Holt's new proposal would authorize federal reimbursement for states that decide they want to offer paper-based options to voters next fall, as well as conduct audits..."

So... going by just that it's not necessarily a bad thing...

As to details, surely Holt consulted with a variety of election integrity advocates...?

His staff discussed the proposal with Democratic leaders this month,

... oh. Now taking bets that Holt only discussed it with the capitulation masters Hoyer and Rahm and perhaps some members of the previous pro-811 crowd...

Theoretically, of course, the always-problematic EAC need have no part of such a bill... but, sure enough, they pop up in the article anyway:

"The Election Assistance Commission also is making progress on the next iteration of nonbinding, nationwide guidelines for voting systems."

The last time the EAC issued "nonbinding nationwide guidelines" the corrupt and partisan incompetents at the EAC told everyone that would listen that e-voting was mandatory... period. And have spent the intervening years screwing over voters, screwing up elections, and lying their collective asses off as a result.

But Holt just loves them, of course...

Now... maybe Holt is smart enough to actually leave overt EAC backdoors out of the new bill, since such a backdoor is already built into Whitehouse's current Caging Prohibition Act, but there is not a chance in hell that he'll give up on it altogether... so... also taking bets now that his new bill plays "camel's nose" and mandates an eventual bridge to 811's worst features through his or other's legislation...

... surely someome here will take up the mean-spirited and cynical zapkitty up on his wagers this time...?

Here's racism, bigotry and misogyny on display from an election official in Georgia!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, and BTW, this man dares to speak to "removing politics from elections" when he went from Chair of the Republican party to Voter Registrar in one fell swoop. (doc here:
http://www.countthevote....y_smith_article_2002.pdf )
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http://www.cumminghome.c...-to-audit-findings.shtml

Speaking at the North Forsyth Rotary Club on Tuesday December 11th, Chairman of the Board of Elections, Gary Smith responded to several of the issues brought forth in the audit recently conducted on his office spending practices.

The EAC issuance of "findings" from their survey of election officials regarding November 2006 elections has now been released. If you read only the executive summary, it tells you NOTHING about any problems, just statistics like how many people were registered, how many voted, etc. Nice bland vanilla data. I've not taken the time to read the 100+ page report, but I have serious doubts it will reveal any issues related to transparency, security, chain of custody, auditability, etc. You know, the boring stuff!

Virtually nothing of the voting machine disaster in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Anybody know why?

A new proposal may be good. Just lets hope we dont have another nightmare like 2000

... Bob ebook said...

"A new proposal may be good. Just lets hope we dont have another nightmare like 2000"

Strangely enough... invoking the Supremes a la 2000 is one of the Holt Noise Machine's favored scare tactics, actually.

Unfortunately Holt's 811 got so screwed up in the capitulation process that one or more Supreme Court appeals seemed inevitable no matter what.

In other words... just glad-handing Holt and passing the bill as it was would almost certainly have guaranteed Supreme intervention.

And if that old noise machine should start up with the same unthinking crap again in regards to the new "optional" bill...

"Danger, Will Robinson, Danger!"

Holt's deliherately divisive backroom machinations to advance passage of his legislation was not the high point of his career... and the Election Integrity community members who unthinkingly swallowed the divisive BS of that noise machine didn't cover themselves with glory either.