What's Wrong with the Holt Bill? (Nancy Tobi)

TrueMajority's Holt Bill action alert should be reconsidered
Democracy for New Hampshire / April 10, 2006
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Today many of you have received an action alert from TrueMajority, asking you to sign a petition in support of HR 550, also known as the Holt Bill. I would like to issue a counter alert. The Holt Bill is well intended, but unfortunately, it is not just about paper ballots; it includes several dangerous provisions that are not good for our democracy at all.

Consequently, there are many election activists, including most of us on the DFNH Fair Elections Committee, who do NOT endorse the Holt bill as written. The movement of informed activists against the Holt bill is growing each day. This bill, like the Help America Vote Act, was borne from the grassroots but now seems to have been hijacked by special interests.

I have written three articles about this:

What's wrong with the Holt Bill? Part 1

What's wrong with the Holt bill? Part 2

What's wrong with the Holt bill? Part 3

I have been in touch with the Holt office, and they have acknowledged but not addressed our concerns. The problem with the bill as written is that it sets us up for a handover of election control to the executive branch.

So, raise your hands if you believe the White House will do a good and honest job of managing our federal, state, and local elections.

Now raise your hands if you want a federal agency to send in hired contractors to conduct recounts in New Hampshire, even, under certain circumstances, for state and local elections.

OK - if you haven't raised your hands for either of these questions, call Holt's office and ask them to change the bill. Let them know that you support their efforts, and you want to support the Bill, but you can not do so until they address our concerns.

Ask them to revise it so that it ONLY CALLS FOR PAPER BALLOTS. And nothing else. No audits, and no federal agency taking over our elections.

Congressman Rush Holt
District Office
50 Washington Rd.
West Windsor, NJ 08550
Phone - (609) 750-9365 Fax - (609) 750-0618

Washington Office
1019 Longworth House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515
Phone - (202) 225-5801 Fax - (202) 225-6025

Then, write to TrueMajority, and tell them your concerns as well: [email protected]

Provisions of the Bill we support:

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2005’’.

SEC. 2. PROMOTING ACCURACY, INTEGRITY, AND SECURITY THROUGH VOTER-VERIFIED PERMANENT RECORD OR HARD COPY. (change "verified" to "verifiable")

Provisions we want stricken from the Bill:

SEC. 4. PERMANENT EXTENSION OF AUTHORIZATION OF ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMMISSION.

SEC. 5. REQUIREMENT FOR MANDATORY MANUAL AUDITS BY HAND COUNT.

SEC. 6. REPEAL OF EXEMPTION OF ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMMISSION FROM CERTAIN GOVERNMENT CONTRACTING REQUIREMENTS.