On behalf of Barb, Ed, and rest of the Common Cause team working on election reform, we want to thank you for all of your activism for paper trail. Thanks to all of your efforts we are continuing to make significant progress on making our elections process transparent and auditable. Today 21 states have passed laws requiring that voting machines produce an actual paper record that voters can view to check the accuracy of their votes and that election officials can use to verify votes in the event of a computer malfunction, hacking, or other irregularity. Three states have passed administrative rulings requiring such a "paper trail" process. Very soon Legislators from Wisconsin will introduce bill that enjoys widespread bipartisan support which require that electronic voting machines in Wisconsin produce a paper ballot that could be reviewed by the voter and that would be kept in case a recount is needed.  And there are now 144 members of Congress, both Republicans and Democrats, who are official co sponsors of the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act (HR 550) a bill which would make it federal law that voting machines produce a paper record so that elections are transparent and auditable.

We have your activism to thank for this. Back in June, many of you came to Washington, DC to lobby your members of Congress on this issue. Your efforts truly paid off -and we came away with a number of new cosponsors for HR 550.  Now, because it is true that members of Congress truly pay attention when the cry for change comes within their own home districts, we are working with activists to organize meetings at home district offices over the month of August. We are reaching out to members of Congress who have not co-sponsored the bill yet, but whose support would be very influential. I hope a number of you will join us.  You can see if your representative is on the target list and sign up by clicking right here.  Thanks again.