The dog days of August didn't deter 450 of our activists from stepping up and making our voices heard on the "paper trail" issue via in-district meetings all across the country. Earlier this week, on August 15 and 16 over 30 different groups of activists from around the country went to the local offices of their members of Congress to ask for support of
the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act (HR 550). As we have written here before, this bill would require all voting machines to produce an actual paper record that voters could view to check the accuracy of their votes and that election officials could use to verify votes in the event of a computer malfunction, hacking, or other irregularity.
Over all, our actvists visted 33 different Members of Congress to
keep up our pressure for paper trail urging their representatives to co-sponsors of HR 550. We have received a number of emails giving us some great feedback on how these meetings went. Here is an email I got from Marcelle Bessman from from Jacksonville, FL. Marcel and her team met with Congressman Ander Crenshaw's (R-FL) District Aide and District Representative, and sent us this report:
"The meeting lasted 1 hour and 15 minutes...a lot of discussion was held. Two of the attendees were very knowledgeable software people who raised issues about possible software glitches and the need for a verifiable paper trail.
We repeatedly emphasized our desire to have the congressman support HR550. The Aide indicated that since Crenshaw sits on the Appropriations Committee he was not comfortable sponsoring a bill. We also suggested that perhaps the Congressman should have a conference with our new Supervisor of Elections (a Republican) who is in the process of purchasing 300 touchscreen machines (paperless). We emphasized also that the American voting public needs to have its confidence restored in the election process. Every vote must count and be verlifiable."
While Marcel and her friends were lobbying Congressman Crenshaw in Florida, on the left coast, Tessa Jenian was leading a meeting for the delegation of activists, who met with Representative Dan Lungren's (R-CA) office in California. Here are Tessa's notes:
It went well. His representative let us know he doesn't cosponsor lightly. But, that she would inform him on the issue and our support of it. We'll see. We ended up with 10 people. They all had constructive things to say, even the ones who said they didn't want to speak.
It was a great first citizen lobbying experience. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.
Thanks for giving me the opportunity to do this.
Now thanks should go out to Marcel, Tessa and activists like Reed Shenck (Reed's meeting is pictured below. He led a delegation to Congressman Gary Miller’s (R-CA) office, which explains the poster of President Nixon) who have been working so hard to keep up the constant grassroots pressure for paper trail:
Are these meetings making a difference? You bet! We've already got one new cosponsor from all our efforts. Congressman Jim Ramstad (R-MN) just signed onto the bill - bringing the total number of cosponsors to 145! Keep up the great work. And as we get more reports, we'll let you know how it all went.
