Paper Trail Bill coming to Elections Committee

Finally we get our chance to speak. Our Senate Bill is Shapleigh's SB94 and we really think that might get scheduled for next week as well in State Affairs. Let's get those calls and faxes in to the election's members.

HB166 is Pena's bill which has been joined by Baxter, Kolkorst and Leibowitz. Those reps combined their bills with his. So we have bi-partisan support. Thank Pena's office too 512-463-0426

HB3383 is Eddie Rodriguez bill to help us keep the SOS vendor certification process open. ACLU sued and won a temporary injunction but we need the process changed in the election code. Eddie's office 512-463-0674

Elections Committee members
Chair: Rep. Mary Denny (R) 512-463-0688
Rep. Dwayne Bohac (R) 512-463-0727
Rep. Todd Smith (R) 512-463-9529
Rep. Rafael Anchia (D) 512-463-0746
Rep. Charles "Doc" Anderson (R)
Rep. Bryan Hughes (R) 512-463-0271
Rep. Jesse Jones (D) 512463-0664



HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING

COMMITTEE: Elections

TIME & DATE: 2:00PM or upon final adjourn./recess
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
PLACE: Capitol Extension, E2.012
CHAIR: Rep. Mary Denny

HB 166* Pena / et al.
Relating to the use of direct recording electronic voting machines.
REQUIRES A VOTER VERIFIABLE PAPER TRAIL

HB 3383* Rodriguez
Relating to the process for the approval of voting systems.
DRE CERTIFICATIONS SUBJECT TO OPEN MEETINGS ACT

:dem:
Sonia

Yay!

This is the first time I've helped work a bill through this whole process. Of course it's far from over, but we were very depressed last week when we didn't see the bills posted in elections committee. I felt like it was Christmas on Saturday morning. We got both of them posted. I hear ACLU is bringing in some good national experts to testify. I'll be there and report back on the hearing.

Sonia

not PAPER TRAIL. This is really important. They can call those little receipts we get a "paper trail". But that ain't a ballot.

We know the difference, and unfortunately it's going to be difficult enough getting the bill out of committee. The bill will retain the language the paper record copy is not a ballot. The bill is only for the purpose of allowing the voter to verify their choices on a printed record copy.

It may not be perfect but it's a start. At least it will require printers on DREs, and does say the paper record copy of the ballot is auditable.

Best we can do this year. And we'll be lucky if we get this out of committee.

Sections of both HB166 and companion SB94:
(2) creates a contemporaneous auditable paper record copy of each electronic ballot that allows a voter to confirm the choices the voter made through both a visual and a nonvisual method, such as through an audio component, before the voter casts the ballot.

(b) The paper record copy must list the contests on the ballot and the voter's choices in those contests. The paper record copy is not a ballot.

Sonia

I just picked up a copy of Rep. Pena's substitute bill and there are some good changes. The most important one about paper ballot language and the paper ballot being the official record is somewhat addressed with this section.



The substitute bill is not up on the TX Lege bill search yet. (HB 166)

The bad news is that the companion bill in the Senate SB94 which we had heard would get a hearing this week, has not been scheduled is unlikely to get a hearing this week. This is very bad. We need both bills to move on each side. Time is getting critical. This was devastating to hear this morning. :(

Sonia

I just got the electronic notification this morning that there will be a hearing. However, I looked at the text on the website and it's still the old, old bill.

Overall I think the hearing went quite well. The hearing didn't start until 5:00 p.m. and they heard a lot of bills. Most of them very, very good. The committee normally does not vote on the bills they hear that day in session. All of them get moved to pending, so there is no vote to report on our bills. We have to wait until the next time they meet to see if they vote our bills out of committee.

On HB166, there was yet another substitute Rep. Pena brought to the committee. He did some more tweaking to satisfy the TX Clerks and Registrars. Anyway that got him the support of that group and that's a really big thing. Dana Debeauvoir, who is the Travis County registrar and also serves as chair of TX County Clerks and Registrars only gave the Pena bill her support. There were 2 other paper trail bills filed. She really praised Pena for working with them and giving them what they needed in terms of flexibility, and for not slapping a bill together with no thought to the people who have to work with the law. Dana testified that she thought it was a very good thing to reassure voters that we are continuing to safeguard their most scared voting rights. It also extends their time to comply until 1/1/2008.

Denny who is the Elections committee chair had started out the bill discussion with her concern that this bill was going to force an unfunded mandate on the counties. She said she knew that the Feds weren't going to give out too much more money and that the state certainly didn't have any to dole out. She called on Ann McGeehan from the SOS office to talk about the Fed HAVA law and funding. Ann said that the EAC (Election Assistance Commission -FEDs) had not set any standards for V-VPAT (verified voter paper audit trail) and that they were not mandating V-VPAT, but that EAC was in the process of setting some standards since a lot of states are moving this way. She said HAVA money was available to pay for these new systems but expected that since HAVA does have a deadline of 1/1/06 that she did not expect money to be available after that date.

Todd Baxter who had a similar paper ballot bill said that he would get behind the Pena bill. Kolkorst wasn't at the hearing but we expect she will also join as co-author of the Pena bill. There were about 15 witness affirmations filed in favor of our bill and 2 against. We had support from ACLU-TX, TX State Democratic Party, Progressive Populist Caucus of the Dem Party, Harris County Democrats, Denton County Democratic Party, Denton Republican County Party, TX Association of County Clerks and Registrars, National Organization for Women-TX (NOW), Public Citizen (TX), People for the American Way (TX), and Common Cause(TX), Libertarian Party of Texas and Voter Virgin. The two "no" affirmations were from Bruce Beatty Rockwell County Commissioner's court with no testimony, and Don Lee of the TX Conference of Urban Counties. Bruce testified that we should wait for the Feds to set the mandate and not get ahead of their standards. Bruce he did not oppose the idea of V-VPAT but just didn't want to waste money. Rep. Bryan Hughes from the committee told him there was nothing wrong with Texas having a higher standard than the Feds if we wanted too. Very good sign.

ACLU-TX brought in Rice Professor Dan Wallach to testify as a security expert and he was well received. He laid out our case very well about the insecurity of electronic voting and current testing methods. The new bill has some very good language for accuracy and logic testing, and the electronic hash code having to be tested before and after an election, and parallel testing of programming equipment has to be done as well as guidelines for physical and virtual security of the software and equipment. I'm going to trust that Dan Wallach feels good about all of this in the bill.

I would also like to single out the Denton County Democratic party chair Edra Bogle who spoke in favor of the bill. Denton county is Denny's county. Edra said she also spoke for Dianne Edmondson the Republican Party Chair for Denton as well. They both supported the bill. So Denny has her own county party chairs both in favor of the bill. And big kudos to Stan Merriman and John Berhman of the Progressive Populist Caucus and Harris Democratic Party who drove in from Houston to testify. Both were great speakers. John added that he was involved in the Houston Vo recount and how this bill is absolutely critical in making sure these future challenges are handled better. The paper ballot being the official record for electronic systems is a big plus.

Our other bill HB3383 the SOS open process bill was also well received and Dan Wallach spoke on our behalf on that one as well.

Lots of other good bills like the Instant Runoff Voting that Representative Eddie Rodriguez introduced. I like that one too.

Next step is continue to push for our Senate companion bill SB94. We need Senator Robert Duncan to post our bill for a hearing in State Affairs!

Sonia

:hi:

I had a couple of other groups to add to supporters I forgot to list above. LuLAC and MALDEF both were in favor of our bills. I also want to say I remember the Kinky for Governor people being in favor too of HB166. I have to say that they had on great shirts that said "Be a Kinky volunteer".

I like Kinky but I love Chris Bell. Texas needs Bell more than kinksters.

Sonia

If the current trend is toward a paper trail instead of a paper ballot, then we're not making any progress.

Should we start actively discouraging the use of touchscreen machines again?

Note that the language in the new substitute bill says the V-VPAT (i.e. the piece of paper that the voter views and approves before they cast their ballot) is the official ballot of record when DREs are used. This does mean that we will have a paper ballot for electronic voting. You are correct however in assuming that some counties will keep their optical scan and paper ballot systems. That's perfectly legal under this bill. They do however have to get a few DREs for the disabled voters for HAVA requirements, but they can have a hybrid system.

Hope that makes more sense.

The new substitute bill is still not up but the bill does now have the following co-authors
Pena | Hochberg | Baxter | Kolkhorst | Hughes.

Hughes is Bryan Hughes who is on the Elections Committee and a Republican and that's absolutely great news.

Sonia

ginbarn told me something similar last night, but hearing that the V-VPAT will be the official ballot helps me feel a little better.

At least we can hopefully preserve the integrity of future elections in Texas.

Good job lining up that support Representative Pena!

Sonia

HB166 (Pena's bill) verified voter paper audit trail just got voted out of committee as substituted. Makes paper ballot a requirement for all e-voting systems. Woo Hoo!!!

Now we have to do the leg work to get the bill passed on floor.

Sonia

:yourock:

Should we start a new thread to let EVERYONE know that we need to start leaning on our reps? Is it time?

Stan gave an update about your work in tonight's PPC mtg here in Houston, but he didn't know that it was out of committee. :yourock:

This is GREAT news!

We're doing some phone bank calls on Wednesday to get people to call their reps, but I haven't seen the phone script. The main points to make are:
1) Both party platforms in Texas supported a verifiable paper ballot.

2) We need this to safeguard our vote, which is one of our most scared rights in our democracy.

3)And if they make a point about the costs, tell them HAVA monies can be used for these printer upgrades.

The majority of the state has not moved to e-voting anyway, so they have a better chance getting good pricing from the vendors. Counties can keep their optical scan systems under this bill. They could operate under a hybrid system, where they buy a few DREs for disabled voters and keep their optical scan for everybody else.

Sonia

She's my rep. I just made a flyer -- it looks better formatted, but the text is below. Should I paper my area? I live in a D area within her R district.

What do you think? I'll call, probably my roommate too, but if you think it's worth flyering I will do some of that too.

***
Support Voter-Verified Paper Ballots
For Secure Elections
“Verified Voting, NOT Faith-Based Voting!”

The Texas House of Representatives is considering a bill, joined by both Democrats and Republicans, to require Voter-Verified Paper Ballots in Texas elections. Please Call State Representative Martha Wong and ask her to support HOUSE BILL 166 (Peña’s bill), which has been joined by Democrats and Republicans.
1) Both party platforms in Texas supported a verifiable paper ballot.

2) We need this to safeguard our vote, which is one of our most scared rights in our democracy.

3) HAVA monies can be used for these printer upgrades. (Help America Vote Act, which is Federal money.) The majority of the state has not moved to e-voting anyway, so they have a better chance getting good pricing from the vendors. Counties can keep their optical scan systems under this bill.

(Martha Wong's Austin and local addresses, phone, and fax numbers.)


Would you put your money in an ATM
with a bank that gave no receipts?

Isn’t YOUR VOTE even more valuable?

Here is her Austin contact info
Capitol Office
Room EXT E1.406
P.O. Box 2910
Austin, TX 78768
(512) 463-0389
(512) 463-5896 Fax

She wasn't a member of the Elections Committee. Those were the only visits I was making prior to this vote. I'm sure we're going to try to visit a bunch more here shortly.

I can say this, we have 3 co-authors that are Republicans on this bill Todd Baxter (Austin) Lois W. Kolkhorst (Brenham/Hunstville) and Bryan Hughes (Marshall). Two Democrats Pena and Scott Hochberg.

The vote was 5-0 on elections committee for HB166. 2 were absent when the vote took place, otherwise it would have been 7-0 we think.

Here is some of the language in the fliers we delivered to the election committee offices if that helps.

A Paper Trail is Needed to Ensure Our Votes are Counted
Without a printed receipt that voters can use to confirm their vote, there is no good way to audit the outcome of an electronic voting system.

The remedy is adding a printer to generate a paper ballot that voters can view to confirm their ballot choices. This ballot would be stored securely, as with traditional paper ballots, allowing for recounts and other measures to protect the security of the election.

A paper trail system preserves all the accessibility benefits of an electronic voting system while having the safety and transparency of a traditional paper ballot.

Texas Political Parties Support Verified Voting
The Texas Republican Party Platform calls for "prohibition of internet voting and any touch screen voting or other electronic voting which lacks a paper trail."

The Texas Democratic Party Platform calls for: "A requirement that electronic voting systems deploy a voter verifiable paper printout to ensure that our votes are counted and can be accurately recounted."

We Cannot Afford Not to Provide Verified Voting
Harris County, November 2004: A close election between Talmadge Heflin and Hubert Vo. Because of the use of electronic voting, there is no valid way determine that the outcome reflected the will of the voters.

North Carolina, November 2004: An evoting system loses 4400 votes for Agriculture Commissioner, likely changing the outcome of the vote from Republican to Democrat. The county needs to hold a new election. Cost: $3.5 million.


Sonia