I'm still getting Hillary's stuff re: Count Every Vote Act, and...

...I noticed that her latest mailing suggested that there was now one Democratic election reform bill promoted by her, Boxer, Lautenberg, and of course our most excellent John Kerry.

I have not had the chance yet to talk with him about the electronic security issues that need to be fixed, got some friends with connections who may be able to arrange such a meeting... anyway. What I've seen of the proposed bill suggests that it addresses paper trails (which incidentally aren't sufficient, but that's another rant), discrimination, voting equipment allocation, and registration fraud; however, it doesn't appear to give computer security issues their due attention. That alarms me. I read blood-curdling accounts last year, accounts from reputable people, about the horrendous security of the machines and the software therein. This needs to be addressed as well as the "low-tech" matters.

Is it possible to obtain the full text of this bill, so I could see exactly what provisions are there to prevent high-tech fraud?


(BTW please nobody crucify me for being on Hillary's mailing list. I got on it for signing her petition. Thus far the only things she's sent to me have related to this bill, which I want to know about.)

I am a Friend of Hill. She is OK. The petitions are great.

Thomas generates dynamic links from their searchs so they expire pretty quickly.

But you can go to http://thomas.loc.gov and type S. 450 in the box check enter bill number and voila.

BTW, I was kinda surprised when I first got Hillary's email ... because of the way I track my emails, I know that the DNC shared my address with her... I don't really mind in this case, but it is in violation of their stated policy...

This is the Bill, it calls for the paper record to be used in any hand count. I think that's because if they called the paper the actual ballot, they'd have to count the paper. The ballot has to be what is actually counted and with a machine, it's the machine ballot. So while the paper isn't called a ballot, reserving paper for hand counts is part of the Bill.

`(A) VOTER VERIFICATION-

`(i) The voting system shall produce an individual voter-verifiable paper record of the vote that shall be made available for inspection and verification by the voter before the vote is cast.

`(ii) The voting system shall provide the voter with an opportunity to correct any error made by the system in the voter-verifiable paper record before the permanent voter-verified paper record is preserved in accordance with subparagraph (B)(i).

`(B) MANUAL AUDIT CAPACITY- The permanent voter-verified paper record produced in accordance with subparagraph (A) shall--

`(i) be preserved within the polling place, in the manner, if any, in which all other paper ballots are preserved within that polling place, or, in the manner employed by the jurisdiction for preserving paper ballots in general, for later use in any manual audit;

`(ii) be suitable for a manual audit equivalent to that of a paper ballot voting system; and

`(iii) be available as the official record and shall be the official record used for any recount conducted with respect to any Federal election in which the system is used.'.