RE: Pass H.R. 550, the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act!

Dear Representative ,

I very strongly urge you to do everything possible to quickly pass H.R. 550, the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act, to fully protect the integrity of America�s electoral process.

Last Fall, the report of the Commission on Federal Election Reform called on Congress to establish a requirement for a voter verified paper record (VVPR) of every vote and mandatory audits. Reports from the non-partisan Government Accountability Office and the Congressional Research Service confirmed concerns about the reliability and security of electronic voting systems. While over half the states have already established VVPR requirements and half of those will conduct mandatory manual audits, legislative action is urgently needed to establish uniform safeguards nationwide and protect the 2006 elections.

Voting integrity activists who have been championing this cause for several years are pleased that the Commission confirmed the need for this critical security measure. However, the report also recommends that the status of the voter verified paper ballot should be determined by states rather than mandated as the ballot of record nationwide. This means that any individual state can decide to disregard the only record that the voter has confirmed in favor of the record inside the electronic machine and make the voter verified paper ballot a meaningless and expensive placebo. In addition, the report suggests that pre-election machine "audits" may also be acceptable. Such audits would constitute simply another pre-election machine test, and should not be confused with meaningful independent audits of actual election results.

H.R. 550 will, however, mandate an effective and meaningful voter-verified paper record and independent audit requirements. This bipartisan legislation has been endorsed by voting integrity experts as the "gold standard" in verifiability legislation. Besides mandating a voter verified paper record for every vote cast, it would establish a mandatory uniform national standard that states that the voter verified paper ballot--the only record verified by the voter rather than the voting machine--is the vote of record in the case of any inconsistency with electronic records. It would also provide federal funding to pay for implementation of voter verified paper balloting, require a percentage of mandatory manual (by hand count) random audits of actual election results in every state, and in each county, for every federal election. And it would prohibit the use at any time of undisclosed software, wireless communication devices, and internet connections in voting machines, and protect the accessibility mandates of the Help America Vote Act.

Elections are the foundation of a representative democracy, and representative democracy lives or dies based on the integrity of its elections. H.R.550 will help restore voters' confidence and ensure the accuracy and integrity of America's elections. Please support this crucial legislation and do everything in your power to see it passed as written and in time to protect the 2006 elections.

Most Sincerely,

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