The Holt Bill

Last week, the House of Representatives took up the Holt bill - legislation that would give states the money they need to secure their electronic voting machines with paper ballots in time for the November election.

Our member of Congress, Rep. Ted Poe, voted no.

Yhe bill had been brought up under a streamlined process that required a two-thirds majority to pass and fell just short.

As amended the bill would:

-Require all voting systems to produce a voter verifiable paper record by November 2008. (Voting systems with thermal reel to reel paper would have to replace that paper by 2010 with durable paper.)

-Require states to conduct mandatory, random, automatic audits in 3% of precincts comparing electronic tallies to paper records

- Authorize $1 billion to replace or retrofit equipment so that it complies with the mandates of the legislation. -Mandate that voting system software be available for inspection.