Congressman Bob “Freedom fries” Ney (R, OH) no longer heads the powerful House Administration Committee–for years now the graveyard of Congressional efforts to mandate a verifiable paper backup for US elections.
Diebold voting machines are used in 80% of US elections–but (I’m sure you already know this) they aren’t safe from hackers.
Representative Rush Holt (D-NJ) has introduced H.R. 550, a bill that requires voting machines to create a paper trail, with a mandate to get it in place before the 2006 elections–but
- despite the departure of Bob “Friend of Diebold” Ney,
- despite the high stakes for democracy,
- despite being co-sponsored by close to one-third of the members of Congress,
Holt’s bill is still (unbelievably!) stuck in committee:
“.. it was stalled in the House Administration Committee for two years by its chairman, Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio. Rep. Ney stepped down from that post in January after being subpoenaed in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal, but so far the new chairman, Rep. Vernon J. Ehlers, R-Mich., has shown no inclination to move the bill.” (Editorial from the Trenton (NJ) Times, April 4, 2006)
What can we do?
- Sign Rush Holt’s online petition.
- Check out the Bill’s list of 187 (bipartisan!) cosponsors–is your Representative on the list? Either way, let that Representative hear from you!
- Write your own blogpost or letter to the editor.
Free and fair elections are everybody’s business.
p.s. Thanks to my little sister for noodging me to write about this!
1 response so far ↓
1 Betsy Devine: Now with even more funny ha-ha and peculiar » Giant security hole for 2008 voting // Jul 30, 2007 at 6:27 am
[…] many co-sponsors, the bill couldn’t get out of committee, thanks to Representative Bob (”Friend of Diebold”) …, more widely known for mandating Freedom […]