"Until we require that voting systems produce a voter-verified paper ballot, the results of our elections will always be uncertain," said Rep. Holt. "All Americans deserve to be confident that their vote will be counted, and it is my hope that the 110^th Congress will act soon to pass legislation that will ensure elections are fair, accessible, and auditable."

 
The Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act would require a voter-verified paper ballot for every vote cast, which would become the ballot of record in the event of any recount or audit. It would require routine random audits of paper ballots by hand count in a percentage of voting precincts in each Congressional District.  It would also take steps to make elections more publicly transparent by allowing for the inspection of voting system software. It would require documenting a secure chain of custody for voting systems and prohibit conflicts of interest involving vendors. It would keep the election process accessible to voters with disabilities, and authorize federal funding to help states meet the requirements.

Holt first introduced legislation requiring that electronic voting machines produce a voter-verified paper ballot in the 108^th Congress. In the 109^th Congress, the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act (H.R. 550) had the support of 222 bipartisan cosponsors, more than a majority of the U.S. House of Representatives. Despite this fact, it was not brought to the House floor for a vote. 

Holt called on Congress to pass his legislation soon, in order to assure enough implementation time for the 2008 presidential election. "Restoring confidence in our democracy and in our electoral system is a priority that cannot wait," said Rep. Holt. "Mandating the accessibility and auditability of elections is essential for voters to have faith that their votes are counted as cast."

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Ranking Member Tom Davis also lauded the re-introduction of the legislation. "In election after election, blind reliance on unverifiable Direct Recording Electronic voting machines has served only to lessen public confidence in the government's ability to count votes accurately," said Davis. "This legislation takes a big step toward restoring that public confidence."

The fundamental requirements of the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act were endorsed in September 2005 by the Commission on Federal Election Reform, co-chaired by former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker. In June 2006, the Brennan Center for Justice issued a report confirming security risks associated with unverifiable and unauditable voting systems. That same month, the National League of Women Voters passed a resolution recommending the use of voter-verified paper records, to serve as the vote of record, and routine random audits. 

The fundamental requirements of the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act have also been endorsed by voting integrity groups such as VoteTrust USA, VerifiedVoting.org, and others; grassroots advocacy organizations like MoveOn.org, Common Cause, People for the American Way, and others; and newspapers like The New York Times, The Washington Post and Roll Call.

The Congressionla Record lists the following original co-sponsors: Mr. HOLT (for himself), Mr. TOM DAVIS of Virginia, Mr. WEXLER, Mr. EMANUEL, Mr. PETRI, Mr. WOLF, Mr. LEWIS of Georgia, Mr. LANGEVIN, Mr. COOPER, Mrs. JONES of Ohio, Mr. CLAY, Mr. SHAYS, Ms. KAPTUR, Mr. ENGLISH of Pennsylvania, Mr. HASTINGS of Florida, Mr. RAMSTAD, Mr. MEEK of Florida, Mr. ISSA, Mr. CUMMINGS, Mrs. BIGGERT, Ms. LEE, Mr. CASTLE, Ms. KILPATRICK, Mr. KUHL of New York, Ms. CORRINE BROWN of Florida, Mr. MACK, Mr. SCOTT of Virginia, Mr. ABERCROMBIE, Mr. ACKERMAN, Mr. ALLEN, Mr. BECERRA, Ms. BERKLEY, Mr. BERMAN, Mr. BERRY, Mr. BISHOP of Georgia, Mr. BLUMENAUER, Mr. BOREN, Mr. BOSWELL, Mr. BOUCHER, Mr. BOYD of Florida, Mr. BRADY of Pennsylvania, Mr. BRALEY of Iowa, Mr. BUTTERFIELD, Mrs. CAPPS, Mr. CARNAHAN, Mr. CHANDLER, Mr. COHEN, Mr. COSTA, Mr. COSTELLO, Mr. COURTNEY, Mr. CROWLEY, Mr. DAVIS of Illinois, Mr. LINCOLN DAVIS of Tennessee, Mrs. DAVIS of California, Mr. DEFAZIO, Ms. DEGETTE, Mr. DELAHUNT, Ms. DELAURO, Mr. DICKS, Mr. DINGELL, Mr. DOGGETT, Mr. DOYLE, Mr. EDWARDS, Mr. ELLISON, Mr. ENGEL, Ms. ESHOO, Mr. ETHERIDGE, Mr. FATTAH, Mr. FILNER, Mr. FORTUÑO, Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts, Mrs. GILLIBRAND, Mr. GONZALEZ, Mr. GORDON, Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. GUTIERREZ, Mr. HALL of New York, Ms. HARMAN, Ms. HERSETH, Mr. HIGGINS, Mr. HINCHEY, Ms. HIRONO, Mr. HODES, Mr. HOLDEN, Mr. HONDA, Ms. HOOLEY, Mr. INSLEE, Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas, Mr. JEFFERSON, Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas, Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia, Mr. KAGEN, Mr. KENNEDY, Mr. KILDEE, Mr. KIND, Mr. KLEIN of Florida, Mr. KUCINICH, Mr. LANTOS, Mr. LARSEN of Washington, Mr. LOEBSACK, Mrs. LOWEY, Mrs. MCCARTHY of New York, Ms. MCCOLLUM of Minnesota, Mr. MCINTYRE, Mr. MCNULTY, Mrs. MALONEY of New York, Mr. MARSHALL, Mr. MATHESON, Ms. MATSUI, Mr. MELANCON, Mr. MICHAUD, Mr. MILLER of North Carolina, Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California, Mr. MITCHELL, Mr. MOLLOHAN, Mr. MOORE of Kansas, Mr. MORAN of Virginia, Mr. PATRICK MURPHY of Pennsylvania, Mr. NADLER, Mrs. NAPOLITANO, Ms. NORTON, Mr. OBERSTAR, Mr. OBEY, Mr. OLVER, Mr. ORTIZ, Mr. PALLONE, Mr. PASTOR, Mr. PAYNE, Mr. PETERSON of Minnesota, Mr. PRICE of North Carolina, Mr. REYES, Mr. ROTHMAN, Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD, Mr. RUPPERSBERGER, Mr. SALAZAR, Ms. LINDA T. SÁNCHEZ of California, Ms. LORETTA SANCHEZ of California, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. SCHIFF, Ms. SCHWARTZ, Mr. SCOTT of Georgia, Mr. SERRANO, Mr. SHERMAN, Mr. SHULER, Ms. SLAUGHTER, Mr. SMITH of Washington, Ms. SOLIS, Mr. SPRATT, Mr. STARK, Mr. STUPAK, Ms. SUTTON, Mr. TANNER, Mrs. TAUSCHER, Mr. TAYLOR, Mr. TIERNEY, Mr. TOWNS, Mr. UDALL of Colorado, Mr. VAN HOLLEN, Mr. WALZ of Minnesota, Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, Ms. WATERS, Ms. WATSON, Mr. WAXMAN, Mr. WEINER, Ms. WOOLSEY, Mr. WU, Mr. WYNN, and Mr. ALTMIRE.

Name: Dianne Foster - 2007-02-14 15:55:49 Comment: Along with the above comments, I must remark about an alert from

Name: John Burik - 2007-02-12 23:49:31 Comment: As second draft, Holt II makes significant steps in the right direction. There are significant shortfalls which one hopes will be corrected in an anticipated companion bill in the Senate. It mandates a paper ballot as the ballot of record for audits and recounts, however, it is unclear whether that ballot will be universally counted for the totals we receive on Election Night or even the certified results. It appears the bill would permit touch screen (DRE) machines to tally machine counts and at most count only ten percent of their paper ballots. The bill requires states' attorneys general to respond to voters' complaints and permits individual voters to sue, but this may be of little value when votes are already certified and candidates installed (25,000 provisional ballots were rejected in Ohio 2006). The bill requires an audit of results, and its tiered approach is a vast improvement over the fixed percentage of its predecessor, but at the highest tier (10%) the Brennan Center reports only a 50-50 chance of discovering election-changing miscounts. The bill requires the use of paper ballots'for audits and recounts, but Sec. 2 and Sec. 327 provide loopholes when that might not occur. The bill requires a text conversion capability so visually impaired or non-English speaking voters could verify their vote, but significantly underfunds this section of the legislation. The bill does nothing to redress the de facto disenfranchisement which occurred due to registration problems and rejected provisional ballots. Finally, the bill makes permanent the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) whose members are appointed by the White House. Briefly, paper ballots and audits are great ideas, but I fear in most cases (1) we will get only the machine count, and (2) an ineffective audit.