Great crowd of activists at the Congressional hearing today on electronic voting machines.  You can see the hearing online through the House Administration committee's website.  We'll have reports from those who were in the room today later on -- check back soon.  There are now 212 cosponsors for Rep. Rush Holt's bill, HR 550 -- I heard previous skeptics saying his bill is sure to pass next year -- but we'll have to fight to keep it from being weakened.

There was also a lot of talk about legislation that Rep. Holt has introduced, along with companion legislation by Senators Clinton, Dodd and Feingold, to provide funding for elections officials across the country to provide emergency paper ballots for any voter who wants one and as backup in case voting machines fail.  See Barbara Burt's blogs about this bill.

By the way, that's our lobbyist James Benton in the foreground of the photo, sending updates back to the office.