FL-13: Please Call Your Congresscritters Today

The 110th Congress will open tomorrow.  The first order of business will be organization, including any challenges to whether members are seated.  As you know by now, one of those questions is the results of FL-13, where touchscreen voting machines mysteriously made 18,000 votes from the Democratic part of the district disappear.

If we want to have House Democrats stand up for the integrity of elections in the most egregious case we've seen so far, we have to make ourselves heard, and this afternoon is our last chance to do so.  Tomorrow they'll already be in session, and by the time they get your message whatever is going to happen may well be over.

A procedural move is planned to keep options open, but I think we should push for something stronger: declaring the FL-13 seat vacant.  If nothing else we set the bit with Congress that what happened in FL-13 is simply unacceptable to voters.

What I want you to do:  Contact your representative and the rest from your state, both Republican and Democrat.  (If you're from a really big state like NY, just get the closest 5.)

More info and links on how to do this and what to discuss on the flip...

Here are some major points to hit:

Declare the seat vacant, and the procedures and technology used unacceptable

Florida voters will have to decide, with all the votes counted

This is about electoral integrity, not partisanship

How can we be a beacon of democracy to the world if we can't do elections right?

The decision of the judge that ES&S can conceal its source code as a "trade secret" is simply unacceptable to the public.  With the older voting machines, the public is typically allowed to inspect the machines before election day to see that there has been no tampering, and for the lever machines any member of the public can inspect the vote count on the back of the machine at the end of the day.  This principle of complete transparency must not be compromised.

(if you're calling a Republican) This is not a Republican or Democrat thing, as it won't tip the majority.  It's about making sure American elections are clean.  This could hurt Republicans down the road if we don't take a stand - just picture hillary buying a voting machine manufacturer.

Here's how to find out how to contact your Congressional delegation.  I recommend a phone call, as it's quick and makes a stronger statement than email.  The links below will get you to your Congresscritter's House webpage, which will have phone numbers at the bottom, or a Contact link. Typically they have numbers for the DC office as well as one in the district if you don't want the long distance charges. You can also typically send them a message from your representative's website, but it's not clear how much attention these receive.  If your Representative is newly elected, you'll have to go to the Clerk's unofficial list, as right now the house.gov site still has the names of the 109th up.

House of Representatives page - select your Rep from an alphabetical pop-up, or by your ZIP code.

Find your delegation by state - select from the "Choose a State" pop-up menu.

Unofficial contact list of the 110th Congress (PDF) - phone will be listed as 5XXXX, where the full phone number is (202) 225-XXXX

Some more background info:

From Kagro X, a discussion of the procedural motion that will probably be used tomorrow.

Two very thorough diaries by joan reports on what went wrong with the ES&S machines.

The completely unacceptable decision by a Florida judge to allow the manufacture to hide its software from public scrutiny as a "trade secret."  If ES&S wants to have trade secrets, I have no problem with that, but they're in the wrong business if they do.

More FL-13 diaries.

Don't get me wrong, this procedural move by Pelosi and Holt sounds like it's way better than nothing, and I'm glad they're taking it at least seriously enough that they won't completely ignore it - that's some progress I guess - but Congress can and should take stronger action to defend the electoral process.  And if nothing else, it only helps us to clamor for stronger action on election integrity.  And now is definitely the time.

•  don't tip me until you've called

  but do recommend if you agree, to get better visibility.

  by zeke L on Wed Jan 03, 2007 at 12:50:30 PM PDT

  •  done

    Talked to the guy who answered the phone at John Salazar's office. I told him I was happy about the new Democratic HOuse, but I wanted Mr. Salazar to hang tough and let the Republicans cross over to the Dem side and that on this issue there needs to be a revote. He said he would pass it along. Hey, lets keep these numbers on speed dial!

    by oakroyd on Wed Jan 03, 2007 at 01:01:20 PM PDT

    •  good work!

      thanks.

      i called all of mine from my state, including a couple of freshmen.  i even called the republicans, because i want them to hear from us too.  i want them to get the picture that this FL-13 thing is a turkey they shouldn't bother trying to defend.

      and the day before everything starts, with staffers just getting in and set up, seems like a good time to bug their office.  

      by zeke L on Wed Jan 03, 2007 at 01:08:12 PM PDT

  •  ESS has a presence here

    ESS has a presence here in NE-02 and Lee Terry can occasionally work himself up to being worthless, but usually he doesn't even do that well. Hey, at least I made the call ...

    by Iowa Boy on Wed Jan 03, 2007 at 01:09:59 PM PDT

    •  where they're based, yes?

      are they still based in nebraska, like when it was hagel's company?

      maybe you should call chuck too, just to piss him off.

      by zeke L on Wed Jan 03, 2007 at 01:27:46 PM PDT

    •  The thing with ES&S

      let the judge say they can keep their source code proprietary. But let Congress say they can't do any business with U.S. elections anymore. They can take their proprietary source code elsewhere.

      by anastasia p on Wed Jan 03, 2007 at 01:47:46 PM PDT

  •  Here's your tip

    I called, and the guy who answered the phone said, in response to my saying that I hoped my congresswoman would stand behind declaring the seat vacant and holding a new, fair election, "That's our goal." He enthusiastically agreed with everything I said and aded that they hoped to get some serious legislation going on election integrity issues in the next year.

    Of course, my congresswoman is none other than Stephanie Tubbs Jones, the woman who stood up in the House and challenged the certification of the 2004 presidential election.

    But still....

    by anastasia p on Wed Jan 03, 2007 at 01:46:18 PM PDT

    •  awesome!

      go stephanie.

      the staffers i talked to listened and said they'd pass it on.  not sure how much they knew about it, but one guy i got told me to "educate" myself about the case some more.  what a jerk - and that was one of the democrats too.  he's the only one who gave me a hard time for calling ouside my own district too.  (of course i also made sure to mention that i had met them on the campaign trail and at fundraisers and such.)

      by zeke L on Wed Jan 03, 2007 at 01:53:42 PM PDT

•  I wrote a letter to Feeney

  unfortunately, he is an Abramoff boy.

  by Russ Jarmusch on Wed Jan 03, 2007 at 01:46:19 PM PDT

•  Called Barbara Lee

  I had to speak to two different people in the Oakland office, and after walking through the complete story, I was asked to give them bullet points to pass on to Rep. Lee.  It was something like:

  18,000 votes not counted on machines with no paper trail.  That's 13% in county the Dem candidate otherwise carried.  Absentee "no votes" were 1.2%.  Because there is no way to re-count, there is no honest way to know who got more votes.  This is not about politics but the integrity of our voting system.  Declare the seat vacant and require a re-vote.  

  by hilltopper on Wed Jan 03, 2007 at 03:54:22 PM PDT

  •  excellent summary

    good work.

    by zeke L on Wed Jan 03, 2007 at 04:31:16 PM PDT