{"id":4279,"date":"2007-03-19T06:05:27","date_gmt":"2007-03-19T13:05:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bradblog.com\/?p=4279"},"modified":"2007-03-19T13:13:03","modified_gmt":"2007-03-19T20:13:03","slug":"a-challenge-to-opponents-of-a-ban-on-electronic-ballots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=4279","title":{"rendered":"A Challenge to Opponents of a Ban on Electronic Ballots"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guest Blogged by Ellen Theisen of VotersUnite.Org<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

I challenge anyone to put forward an actual disadvantage<\/b> of amending Representative Rush Holt’s bill<\/a> (HR 811, “The Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2007”) to ban electronic ballots. With a few moments’ thought, I can list five bad things (which opponents might anticipate) that such an amendment would NOT do and fifteen good “\u201d actually, critical “\u201d things it WILL do. <\/p>\n

Is there even one way in which electronic ballots serve our democracy better<\/strong> than true paper ballots?<\/p>\n

I claim that an amendment banning electronic ballots has LOTS of advantages and NO disadvantages “\u201d for our country and its democracy, anyway. And I challenge anyone to think of a democracy-serving reason why NOT to amend it. “The bill won’t pass with the amendment” doesn’t count<\/em>. I’m looking for a genuine disadvantage of the amendment.<\/p>\n

Here’s what I see. Tell me if I’ve missed something”\u00a6.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The amendment WILL NOT: <\/b><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. increase the number of jurisdictions that have to update their equipment under HR 811,<\/li>\n
  2. nor diminish HR 811’s accessibility requirements for people with disabilities or language needs, <\/li>\n
  3. nor increase the appropriations required for HR 811 or the costs incurred by the states,<\/li>\n
  4. nor delay elections results,<\/li>\n
  5. nor increase the work of election directors. On the contrary, some New Mexico clerks even said that after they eliminated electronic ballots, they had the smoothest election ever. <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The amendment WILL:<\/b><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. simplify poll worker training and enable people who aren’t computer experts to work effectively at the polls. With over half a million poll workers in the field on election day, we can’t require all of them to be computer experts.<\/li>\n
    2. prevent ethnic profiling from being accomplished INSIDE the voting booth by machines that require a voter to choose their language.<\/li>\n
    3. prevent long lines at polling places.<\/li>\n
    4. prevent another Sarasota. If something goes wrong in an election “\u201d and it will “\u201d we will be able to find out the cause of the problem. <\/li>\n
    5. eliminate vote-flipping, where a voter’s selection changes on the screen before their very eyes. <\/li>\n
    6. allow elderly voters and others who are not computer-savvy to vote in a way that makes sense to them and doesn’t cause anxiety or embarrassment. <\/li>\n
    7. reduce the need for vendor technicians to solve problems in the field on election day.<\/li>\n

      (The list has gotten long, so this is just a reminder that I’m listing what an amendment requiring a ban on electronic ballots WILL do.)<\/p>\n

    8. simplify the testing and certification process managed by the EAC.<\/li>\n
    9. reduce the operating costs of election offices across the country. <\/li>\n
    10. allow implementation of HR 811 by 2008 because the technology is already available, rather than not yet invented.<\/li>\n

      \t…..and the most important ones….<\/strong><\/p>\n

    11. allow every voter to verify the ballot that is counted, rather than merely verifying a screen or paper representation of their ballot, which may or may not match the one that counts. <\/li>\n
    12. enable voters to know that their votes were recorded as they intended.<\/li>\n
    13. increase voter confidence in election results by enabling meaningful observation of ballot handling and counting.<\/li>\n
    14. allow audits on questionable elections to be conducted by ordinary citizens, rather than requiring formal studies by teams of computer technology experts.<\/li>\n
    15. restore simplicity to our elections.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      So, what’s a reason “\u201d even ONE reason “\u201d NOT to amend the Holt bill to ban electronic ballots?<\/p>\n

      # # #<\/center><\/p>\n
      Take action to amend the Holt Election Reform Bill!
      \nDEMAND A BAN ON DRE\/TOUCH-SCREEN VOTING!<\/strong>
      \n–       Email Congress!<\/a>
      \n–       Call you members!<\/a>
      \nSee       www.BradBlog.com\/Holt<\/strong><\/a> for more details, coverage, talking points & information on all of the above!<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Guest Blogged by Ellen Theisen of VotersUnite.Org I challenge anyone to put forward an actual disadvantage of amending Representative Rush Holt’s bill (HR 811, “The Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2007”) to ban electronic ballots. With a few moments’ thought, I can list five bad things (which opponents might anticipate) that such an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,218],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-4279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-election-reform","category-rush-holt"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4279\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4279"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=4279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}