---Put your Name and Address here---

 

September 4, 2007

 

Honorable ----put Representative’s Name here---

United States House of Representatives

Washington, DC 20515

By Fax:  ---put fax number here, look it up here ---

 

RE: Oppose HR811 unless it is amended to ban DREs! Ban DREs NOW!

 

Dear Representative:

 

HR811 allows invisible electronic votes to continue to be used in American elections. It is worded to deceive you and the American public, by calling a paper trail a "paper ballot."

 

Paper trails are no substitute for ballots that voters can mark directly! Paper trails are not counted on election night! When electronic voting machines, called "touchscreens" or "DREs," are used, with or without a paper trail, our election night tallies are tabulated from invisible electronic votes that no one has ever seen - not the voter, not any election observer. 

 

Congress must stop forcing the American people to "trust" invisible election processes.

 

Electronic voting machines and privatization have turned our elections into a "confidence game," but I do not trust invisible ballots and secret procedures.

 

Regardless of the waste of money that was spent to purchase DREs, such systems are an invitation to fraud. Congress must fix this problem which Congress created with the Help America Vote Act of 2002.

Congress must require the use of voter-marked paper ballots! Paper ballots are understandable to all, easily observed by citizens, and easily manageable to our local election administrators.

 

The Holt election reform bill, H.R. 811, is scheduled for a vote on September 5. I urge you to work for - and vote for -- an amendment to HR811 to ban use of DRE electronic voting machines immediately as of the passage of this bill.

 

Sincerely yours,