Doylestown, PA  Jan. 25, 2006  The Coalition for Voting Integrity, Congressman Michael Fitzpatrick, Bucks County Commissioners, James Cawley and Sandra Miller, and candidates from Bucks County today took part in a press conference announcing the breakthrough Citizen's Bill, suggested to Congressman Fitzpatrick by CVI and to be introduced in the United States House of Representatives by Congressman Fitzpatrick on January 31, 2006. The bill will protect local governments that are acting in good faith to become HAVA-compliant but are not able to be so in time for the 2006 primaries, from penalties arising from the Help America Vote Act.

Standing at the podium was Paul Revere (Robert Gerenser), who instead of carrying his customary lantern was holding an antique clock to indicate that time was of the essence.

Mary Ann Gould, of the Coalition for Voting Integrity, repeated the call for bi-partisan action on the bill and thanked Congressman Fitzpatrick for his action on this issue as well as the many Democratic and Republican elected officials across the county who have supported the cause for voter-verified paper ballots and mandatory random audits in Pennsylvania. "Today is a victory for grassroots citizen action groups working with our elected representatives," Ms. Gould said.

She went on to call for citizens and elected officials of both parties to join with CVI as it moves forward with a comprehensive plan to preserve the integrity of our vote in Pennsylvania and across the country. "Congress has the ability to move quickly," Ms. Gould said. "We will travel to Washington D.C. with leaders of both parties and especially citizens from Bucks and other counties in Pennsylvania and hopefully from other states to be sure that this bill gets passed quickly."

Congressman Fitzpatrick, who thanked the Coalition for its work on the issue of voting integrity, said that he has yet to meet anyone in Washington who can run an election as well as local election officials. The Congressman called HAVA "well-intentioned but not helpful to local boards of elections." That sentiment was echoed by Bucks County Commissioner James Cawley, who said that "any way we can delay implementation of HAVA and have time to work our way through the issue is a position we support." Commissioner Cawley compared the county's efforts to comply with unclear state directives to "wading through oatmeal."

Commissioner Sandra Miller joined in support for the proposed legislation and said that one of the commissioners' main concerns was subjecting constituents "to a voting system that is not secure."

Fred Viskovich and Andy Warren, two of the Democratic congressional primary candidates called for a bi-partisan approach to make this bill law.

Related

The Coalition for Voting Integrity is moving ahead on its lawsuit against the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The Complaint alleges that Secretary Cortes erroneously discounted lever voting systems, applied inconsistent certification standards to the voting systems being reviewed for Pennsylvania, and that the integrity, security and proof of the voters' ballots are not being sufficiently considered to satisfy United States and Pennsylvania constitutional standards.

One example of inconsistent voting standards is the consideration of the Hursti hacking test used in Florida. That same hacking test has not been applied to any other machine examined and/or certified by the state.

About Coalition for Voting Integrity

The CVI is a non-partisan citizens' action group dedicated to the integrity of our voting system, thus guaranteeing that each and every vote is recorded/counted/reported fully and accurately . . . with proof.

Website: http://coalitionforvotingintegrity.org

Contact Information

Mary Ann Gould

email: bucks.voter.verified.paper.ballots@gmail.com

phone: 215.588.8518, 215-357-5206