Iowa's Congressman Loebsack Defends Democracy

Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2009

Second District Congressman Dave Loebsack signed on Tuesday as a co-sponsor of the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2009. 

The following is a letter from Congressman Rush Holt (D-NJ), who introduced the bill.

Dear Colleague:

Voting is the foundation of democracy, but: there are still states and jurisdictions in the United States in which the accuracy of electronic vote tallies cannot be independently confirmed.  That is why I am reintroducing my Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2009, which would:

    * mandate the deployment of paper ballot voting systems accompanied by accessible ballot marking devices, and

    * require routine random audits of electronic vote tallies.

While it has been gratifying to see so many states and counties address this problem on their own – in fact, jurisdictions serving 10 million voters deployed paper ballot voting systems between 2006 and 2008 alone — our work to ensure the accessibility, verifiability, and auditability of the vote nationwide is not done.  The Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act will ensure that every vote is verifiable and auditable.  

The 2008 election in Humboldt County , CA shows why this is so important.  During the tabulation process, almost 200 votes were deleted from one of the electronic tallies.  The votes were lost due to a software error which caused all of the votes from the first batch uploaded to the central tabulator to be deleted.  The error was so egregious, the California Secretary of State filed an official report about it with the U.S. Election Assistance Commission; it is available here: www.eac.gov under “Voting System Reports Clearinghouse.”  If California did not require paper ballot voting systems, and if a rigorous audit had not been done, those lost! votes would never have been discovered.  The same, or worse, could still happen in any paperless jurisdiction.

The clear trend is towards paper ballots.  In fact, every jurisdiction that has chosen to change its voting system since 2006 has chosen to use paper ballots with optical scan counting.  That should be the standard.

There are still seven entire states and counties in approximately a dozen others that are not using paper ballot voting systems.  In addition, only 18 states currently require any sort of routine audit of electronic vote tallies.

Please join me in protecting the accuracy, integrity and security of the vote count.  For more information about the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2009 or to become an original cosponsor, please contact Michelle Mulder or call (609) 750-9365.

Sincerely,

RUSH HOLT                            ROBERT WEXLER
Member of Congress                 Member of Congerss    

Groups Endorsing

Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act in 111th Congress

American Council of the Blind
Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law
Center for Democracy and Election Management at American University
Common Cause
Credo Mobile/Working Assets
Democracy Unlimited (David Cobb, 2004 Green Party Presidential candidate)
Electronic Frontier Foundation
True Majority
Verified Voting
Voter Action
Arizona Citizens for Fair Elections
Berks County (PA) Democratic Committee
Citizens for Election Integrity Minnesota
Clarion County League of Women Voters (PA)
Coalition for Peace Action – New Jersey
Concerned Voters of Centre County (PA)
Connecticut Voters Count
Enduring Vote Montana
Florida Voters Coalition
Gathering to Save our Democracy – Tennessee
Georgians for Verified Voting
Green Party of Pennsylvania
Iowans for Voting Integrity
New Era for Virginia
New Yorkers for Verified Voting
Pennsylvania Verified Voting
SAVE Our Votes Maryland
Southern Coalition for Secure Voting
State College (PA) Peace Center
The Black Political Empowerment Project (B-PEP)
VoteAllegheny (PA)
VotePA
Voting Matters – Oregon

In the Second District contact Dave Toll Free: (866) 914-IOWA), or (202) 225-6576,  or write and thank our Congressman for standing up for fair elections and protecting our Democracy.