[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 37 (Wednesday, March 5, 2008)]
[House]
[Page H1223]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE FOR SECURE ELECTIONS ACT

  (Mr. HOLT asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. HOLT. Madam Speaker, so far this primary season elections have 
been conducted in 14 States that still use unauditable voting machines, 
purely electronic. I have shared in letters to my colleagues 
information about incidents in a number of States, one where 90 percent 
of the machines were not functioning in one county when the polls 
opened; and another State, where results from the internal paper tapes 
did not match results on the corresponding memory cartridges; another 
State, where six voting machines in a county had faulty memory cards; 
in a polling place in Chicago, where no touch screen machines were 
working; and at a polling place in Atlanta, where only one in five was 
working.
  In counties where there are no paper records verified by their 
voters, the irregularities cannot be resolved. Machine failures 
elsewhere would have prevented voters from voting had back-up paper 
ballots not been available. Some jurisdictions where paper ballots are 
required allow voting data to be verified by the voters and then used 
to confirm the results despite the failure of electronic memory.
  There is still time before November to secure our electoral system. 
The Emergency Assistance for Secure Elections Act, if enacted, will 
provide localities what they need to do this. Please support this 
legislation.

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