Long Story and a Call to Action - You're Already Calling Congress Today Anyway ...

Long story starts ...... now!

Here's what's been taking up all my time lately:

U.S. Rep. Michael G. Fitzpatrick plans to introduce legislation in Congress next week to delay implementation of the federal law that has caused a scramble among area counties to replace or upgrade their voting machines by the spring primary.

In announcing his proposed amendment to the U.S. Help America Vote Act, the 8th District Republican was joined at a news conference Wednesday in Doylestown by about 25 members of the Bucks County Coalition for Voting Integrity who asked for his help in delaying implementation of the law.

I'm a member of the Coalition for Voting Integrity.  I was the person who brought the idea for the legislation to Fitzpatrick's office last Saturday so I was over-the-moon yesterday at the press conference.  I had no idea that winning felt so good.  The press conference itself was good for a few other reasons too.

First, the leading role of the Coalition (mysteriously absent from the Courier Times version of the story)  gets the message out about the value of citizens' action groups.  Another high point of the afternoon was the bi-partisan nature of the event.   The Coalition is strictly non-partisan.  We're obsessive on the point.  Fitzpatrick, a Republican, was clearly the star of the day since he's the guy  with the power to introduce legislation but two of the three candidates running against him this year were also there to voice support for the bill.  One of them, Andy Warren, was particularly effective when he supported the bill.  He said that he wouldn't find any time for political sniping today and then reached back to shake Fitzpatrick's hand.  Neither one of those guy could have bought better PR than that.  Too bad it was left out of the press coverage. 

So what's the bill say? 

Under the act, if counties don't have the new machines in place by the May primary, they risk losing federal aid earmarked to help them buy the new devices. Most counties in the region are assessing electronic models to replace their old lever machines or upgrade electronic machines to meet the law's requirements.

In Bucks County, where lever machines have been used for decades, commissioners have been pressured by the coalition to select a voting system that creates a paper record of ballots, but only one system with paper records has been certified by the state. That is an ''optical scan'' device, which records votes read off a card submitted by the voter.

The other electronic machines register ballots after the voters touch images on screens or press buttons next to names. By delaying the upgrade deadline, Fitzpatrick said, the county can wait for more paper-backup systems to be certified.

This is huge.  This is the bill that municipalities and some states all over the country have been waiting for.   This afternoon I was lucky enough to talk to Ion Sancho, one of my heroes in this movement.  He had heard of the proposed legislation and made a point of telling me how happy he was about it.   I'm such a fan girl, I danced around for five minutes after I hung up, forcing my kids to hear the Legend of Ion Sancho. 

So now the really hard work starts.   We need to get this legislation passed very quickly.  Fitzpatrick said he'll introduce the bill on January 31, which is the day before the big budget reconciliation bill (more on that later) is set to hit the floor.   The timing is fascinating and crucial.  Moderate representatives up for re-election don't want to have too much attention paid to that budget bill since it's a horrible collection of cuts to reasonable social services, including student loans.  We may have some pull in that direction then by offering them the chance to tag along on this bill, which is a winner on every front (unless you own a paperless voting machine company) and should be a way to get some good press back home. 

So here's the action alert part:

PLEASE  call your Congressional representatives today to tell them to find Congressman Fitzpatrick and sign on to his bill (unnamed and numbered yet) - the one that delays the implementation of HAVA until after the primary season to give us some time to figure out how to implement HAVA fairly, securely and economically. 

 

Comments

[Thomas Nephew]

Wow! -- *CONGRATULATIONS*, eRobin! I'll call my representative Chris Van Hollen ASAP, and I'll post about it for whatever that's worth.

[eRobin]

Posting about it would be fantastic, Thomas. The more attention this gets the better.