Progressive Democrat Issue 67: NATIONAL ACTION

From MoveOn.org

Over the last year, together we helped restore integrity to voting machines in states across the country. More than half of the states now require all voting machines to keep paper records of every vote. But some states are still ignoring the documented problems with unverified voting—we need Congress to act.

In April, you'll have a rare opportunity to meet with members of Congress to ensure every single voting machine in the country is secure and reliable. You can make the greatest impact by going to Washington, D.C. to meet with legislators from your state. If you can't travel to the Capitol, there will also be local meetings set up in some places. A coalition of groups, including Common Cause, VerifiedVoting.org, and VoteTrustUSA, is arranging these meetings.

Tell Congress to get serious about the security of our voting machines. Click here to sign up.

Constituent meetings like this are the most effective way to convince members of Congress they must act. Many MoveOn members traveled to D.C. last June, and they helped convince dozens of representatives to co-sponsor Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ)'s Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act (H.R. 550). Voting machine experts consider this bill the gold standard for election integrity.

Since then, one of the bill's most powerful opponents was forced out of his leadership post because of his involvement in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal. This, along with concerns about voting machine security raised by the Carter-Baker election reform commission and the non-partisan Government Accountability Office, has opened a new window of opportunity for H.R. 550.

Now's the time to show members of Congress how serious we are about the integrity of our nation's voting machines. As one of the MoveOn members who cares most about election integrity, can you attend a constituent meeting?

Meet with members of Congress this April in D.C. or locally. Click here to sign up.

Thanks for all you do.

–Noah, Carrie, Ben, Tanya and the MoveOn.org Political Action Team
Friday, March 10th, 2006

P.S. Last summer's constituent meetings drew attention from the New York Times editorial board, which wrote:

There are many problems with American elections, but none more serious than the rise of paperless electronic voting, whose results cannot be trusted. Grass-roots reformers are in the middle of a two-day lobbying blitz on Capitol Hill in support of a House bill that would require that electronic voting machines in federal elections produce voter-verifiable paper records. It is an important measure that should be passed without delay.

Read the rest of the editorial here.