Unitarian Universalists for
Clean, Honest and Fair Elections
We call witness to the need for election
integrity in our democracy,
and the use of voting equipment and
procedures
that facilitate public oversight of our
elections.
1. Call to
Action
Elections are partisan
and adversarial, and there is enormous motivation to cheat because those
elected to public office control the enormous wealth of our nation.
History tells us that
the only way to achieve election integrity is for the people to participate in
all procedures and to observe them. Officials
who oppose meaningful citizen oversight of election procedures need to be
replaced by those who facilitate it.
Our equipment used for
voting, vote-counting, and vote-tabulating must not prevent citizen oversight,
and our officials must not select and use equipment that prevents citizen
oversight.
We hope that the Action of Immediate Witness passed at the
Unitarian Universalist General Assembly of 2009 will serve as a guide to
working for a federal legislative solution to help protect the integrity of
American elections.
2. Action of Immediate Witness Passed
June 28, 2009 at the 2009 General Assembly of the UUA in Salt Lake City
Advocate Pending Legislation Toward Clean,
Honest and Fair Elections in the United States
As we support the struggles of the Iranian people to have
their voices heard and their votes counted, we must ensure the same for voters
in the United States, so we can elect leaders who work for the good of all
people, and who strive for peace and justice in the United States of America
and around the world.
Two bills before Congress in June, 2009 will help move our
nation to clean, honest and fair elections in the U.S. and curb spending on
campaigns: HR2894, the Holt "Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility
Act of 2009," and HR1826 and S751-752, the "Fair Elections Now Act
(FENA)." See thomas.loc.gov for the complete text of both
bills and www.uuvv.org for additional information.
AIWs for earlier versions of these bills were endorsed at
UUA General Assemblies in 1998, 2000, and 2004. This is the first year that the
updated versions of the bills have a chance of being passed into law.
Unitarian Universalists around the country could make a
significant contribution to the success of this needed election reform
legislation. There are currently 77 cosponsors of the "Voter Confidence
and Increased Accessibility Act of 2009," and 55 cosponsors of the
"Fair Elections Now Act." We
need many more cosponsors of both bills to ensure timely passage.
Our support for HR2894 (the Holt bill) includes advocacy for
the following changes to strengthen the bill:
1. Eliminate the vendor-driven requirement to replace all
existing ballot-marking devices.
2. Ban all communications capabilities in order to prevent
tampering.
3. Require poll site tallies to be publicly posted at the
polls immediately at the close of polls.
4. Mandate rigorous Congressional oversight of the Election
Assistance Commission.
5. Prohibit vendor participation in the development of
technical guidelines.
6. Mandate unconditional public disclosure of all voting
system software and voter registration software.
7. Exempt mechanical devices in which counting mechanisms
are clearly visible, such as lever machines.
8. Require jurisdictions to facilitate public observation of
the entire chain of custody of the ballots and of all audit, tabulation and recount
procedures.
9. Require audits to include evaluation of proper,
continuous citizen oversight of the chain of custody and all tabulation and
recount procedures.
With hope that these concerns can be addressed, we endorse
passage of the Holt bill this year because the key elements we support will
provide critically needed reform of our federal election systems before the
2010 elections.
Because use of the democratic process is a cherished
fundamental principle of Unitarian Universalism, the 2009 General Assembly of
the Unitarian Universalist association urges
1. Individual Unitarian Universalists in the United States
to communicate our support for these bills and advocate these improvements to
HR2894 by contacting their U.S. Representatives and Senators to support, and in
particular COSPONSOR, HR2894, and HR1826 and S751-752.
2. Unitarian Universalist congregations in the United States
to encourage their members to take this action on behalf of democracy in this
country.
3. The Unitarian Universalist Association Washington Office
for Advocacy to keep congregations informed on the progress of these two bills
for clean, honest and fair elections in the United States.
Outline of first
half of HR2894
www.wheresthepaper.org/DREsViolate5thPrinciple090627.pdf
Federalist
Paper #59 on federal power to regulate federal elections
UU
secretaries of state stress importance of voting