From Sarah:
After three hours of testimony yesterday, the Rules Committee recessed without taking any action.

The bill must go through the Rules Committee before it gets to the floor. It's now looking like it might be early next week before there will be a House vote -- so keep up those calls to your members of Congress!

Many thanks to the thousands of you who have already called.

That was the word from Sarah Dufendach, our chief lobbyist, when the staff got together yesterday to talk about the Holt voting machine bill.

This bill - which Common Cause has been fighting to get passed for at least the past two years - looks like it's coming to the floor on Thursday. That's the good news. The bad news is that there's a chance for the Holt bill opponents to throw a major wrench in the works by adding so-called "poison pill" amendments.

We'll keep you posted - here on the blog, and in your email (you are on CauseNet, right?). In the meantime, the most important thing you can do is call your member of Congress and ask him or her to support the Holt bill (HR 811) and oppose any poison pill amendments.

Then tell us about your call.

This is the moment. We can't afford to have another election with suspect voting machine technology. It's too important. Protect your vote. Make the call.

In a U.S. District Court in Cleveland today, Judge Kathleen M. O'Malley ruled on a request for Preliminary Injunction challenging portions of the recently enacted provisions of Ohio law (HB 3) regulating voter registration activities.

Plaintiffs asking for the injunction included Common Cause/Ohio along with Project Vote, and other community, faith groups and individuals.  The plaintiffs claimed that these onerous new laws and regulations have seriously harmed their traditional registration drives by imposing a variety of unreasonable restrictions on individuals and groups involved in voter registration activity.