Dallas: EP 2006 Tech Committee with E-Voting Speakers

[crispini]

You are invited to an open meeting of the Election Protection 2006
Technology Committee on Wednesday, April 27,7:00PM at the Citizens for Equality office, 4301 Bryan St @ Peak, Suite 120.

Dr. Tom Manaugh and Madeleine Hervey will be speaking on the topic of
electronic voting and the work they have been doing to influence the Texas Legislature to pass laws protecting the integrity of the voting process. R.S.V.P. to 214-821-2511 or [e-mail]

[derby378]

1. I'm not too happy with CFE right now

They gave in to the whole electronic voting scam - and we all got sucked into it. I want them to support a zero tolerance policy towards electronic touchscreens.

[crispini]

2. You must be speaking of some history

that I'm not aware of? :shrug: The Tech Committee that I've been working with recently seems very anti-BBV, although it's the Common Cause Texas folks that have been doing the heavy lifting. Harryette plans to go to the Lege and testify in support of Pena's bill which the Common Cause'ers helped rewrite. Now if we can just get it out of Mary Denny's committee.... :mad:

[derby378]

3. Do you have a link to the Pena bill?

I'd like to review it, if possible. Thanks!

[crispini]

4. It's HB166

http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/cgi-bin/db2www/tlo/billhist/Hmatrix.d2w/report?LEG=79&SESS=R&CHAMBER=H&BILLTYPE=B&BILLSUFFIX=00166

It's still the first draft. I don't like it because it calls for paper trail, not paper ballot. However, the folks from Common Cause who will be speaking at the meeting have been working on revisions to the bill which aren't up yet. IMO, if you're interested in e-voting, this one is a must-not-miss.

[derby378]

5. Thanks, crispini!

Have you seen this yet? It's pretty cute.

http://www.savephil.com/main.cfm

[derby378]

6. Yep, you're right

If it calls for a paper trail instead of a paper ballot, I'm not interested. I need real transparency.

[derby378]

7. For newcomers to DU

crispini, I know you've seen this before, but here's the Texas bill I want to see:

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to forbidding the use of direct recording electronic voting machines.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

SECTION 1. Chapter 129, Election Code, is amended by adding
Section 129.002 to read as follows:

Sec. 129.002. DISQUALIFICATION OF DIRECT RECORDING ELECTRONIC VOTING MACHINES.

(a) A voting system that consists of direct recording electronic voting machines may not be used in any municipal, county, state, or Federal election in the State of Texas.

(1) Direct electronic voting machines disqualified under Sec. 129.002 include but are not limited to:

(A) Diebold Accu-Vote TS,
(B) ES&S Ivotronic,
(C) Danaher ELECTronic 1242,
(D) Microvote MV-464 and Microvote Infinity,
(E) Sequoia AVC Advantage and Sequoia AVC Edge,
(F) Shouptronic 1242,
(G) Hart Intercivic eSlate,
(H) Fidlar Doubleday EV 2000, and
(I) Unilect Patriot.

(2) Knowingly and intentionally approving any direct electronic voting machine enumerated in Sec. 129.002(a)(1) for use in at least one municipal, county, state, and/or Federal election in the State of Texas shall be considered a third-degree felony punishable as per Section 12.34 of the Texas Penal Code.

SECTION 2. This Act takes effect January 1, 2006.

[sonias]

8. Hey Crispini we're helping out too

I'm doing some volunteer lobby work for ACLU on Pena's bill as well as 3 other similar paper ballot bills filed this session in the House. HB 166 (Pena), HB 3083 (Kolkhorst), HB 2259 (Baxter) and HB 1289 (Leibowitz).

I dropped by Pena's office today in fact and the substitute bill is almost ready. You're right, getting the bills a hearing is getting critical since there is only about 2 more weeks before they make it out of committee. All of the bills and authors are working together to possibly consolidate on one bill (HB166) if that's the first one to get a hearing. Denny's office is hearing the bills in the order they got referred to elections and the Pena bill was there first. We are really hoping that gets on the schedule for next week.

Another crucial one is HB 3383 (Rodriguez) which opens the SOS certification of vendor equipment up to Open Meetings. If you remember the ACLU had to sue and won a temporary injunction to have those meetings be open to the public. HB 3383 changes the election code language to make that part of the code where no matter what process the SOS chooses, the public meeting and comment would be law. We're waiting for that to get scheduled as well.

Good luck with your meeting. Everybody working together on this helps.

Sonia