Representative Rush Holt (D-NJ), who's worked for several years to get a bill passed in Congress ensuring that voters can verify their votes on paper, and that those paper ballots are counted in mandatory audits and recounts. Today, HR 811, The Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2007, is getting close to passage.

A number of advocates who you think would cheer this development have turned instead to attacking it. Some of them are simply opposed to the federal government mandating how state elections should be run. Others are disappointed that the bill doesn't immediately outlaw DREs for the 2008 election. (What it does do is mandate that by November, 2008, every voter will have the chance to verify his or her vote on a paper ballot, and it ensures that every state will use that paper ballot in mandatory random audits. Without passage of HR 811, some 35 million voters will have to vote on paperless machines, and very few states will conduct audits.)