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I'll paste the entire e-mail I received this morning from TrueVoteMD.org: This is one of those very rare emails that is sent to everybody on the TrueVoteMD.org Critical Updates list. We felt that with the end of the Maryland session, you would want to know what happened with your wonderful efforts to obtain a voter-verified paper audit trail for Maryland through the state legislature. I'll keep it brief, and anyone that wants more details can email back.
The bill is dead, but it died a noble death. The entire Senate voted to approve paper audit trails for this fall's presidential election. The House voted to approve only a task force to study the issue, and report by December 31, 2004 well after the election; the House version was designed to kill the issue.
At the very end, the Senate, led by Andrew Harris, Norman Stone, and Paula Hollinger (all of Baltimore County), refused to compromise, and give up their formal position supporting paper audit trail. So rather than let the issue be trivialized and sidelined in Maryland politics, they let it die in conference, at the very end, about 8 p.m Monday night. Every Maryland Senator should be thanked often and loudly for their principled support of this. (not that they didn't need some nudging....)
Likewise, every Maryland Delegate should be called to task for not passing this widely-supported bill. The response from the people of Maryland has been outstanding, and heart-warming to us here at the nerve center like you wouldn't believe. Jeanne who drove twice from Allegany County in the mountains, just to testify and stand up and be counted; June and her husband, nearing 70 years old and driving in from the Eastern Shore for hearings and testifying; 800 people emailing the Speaker of the House Mike Busch in about one hour, after receiving a national email alert; thousands calling and emailing over the past several months; folks showing up to pack the Senate gallery the night of the floor vote, and the famous "legislator gauntlet"; invitations to speak from around the state, from elderly groups, from students, from Republicans, Democrats, Greens, religious groups, etc. With only about a 60-day startup time in public outreach last fall, to a unanimous Senate vote in April, is a great achievement you can all take credit for.
We also had truly outstanding support from our national partners as well - TrueMajority.org (Ben & Jerry's ice cream), MoveOn.org, and Working Assets telephone company provided action alert support and dramatic newspaper ads.
We of course have lots of plans to still win the issue - this year!!
1) In just 8 days, the national effort to go over the top with the national bill (H.R. 2239) and get a majority arrives in our area. Nearly 50 activists from around the country will be arriving late next week to start 4 days of intensive Hill lobbying, National Lobby Days. We are asked to provide some local housing, and to get our three most likely representatives to sign on - Ben Cardin, Dutch Ruppersberger, and Wayne Gilchrest. Please email "nwallace2@csc.com" if you would like to help. The formal invitation and explanation is at:
http://www.verifiedvoting.org/article.asp?id=1808.
We have seven folks needing housing.
2) We are considering a legal strategy of suing for voting rights in time for the election - stay tuned!
3) We are starting a statewide speaking tour, to continue to educate! Please let us know of any speaking opportunities, groups, and if you would like to speak to people. This is how we started last fall, and it was a beautiful work in progress, that was interrupted by the state legislative frenzy. But now we can get back to basics, talking and explaining and reaching out. Please contact us through (301) 270-6150, or info@freshaircleanpolitics.org.
4) We need interns - college or high school students to help with everything - web, grassroots, media, research - please refer any possibilities! The daily avalanche of calls is amazing and not abating.
We need to build a structure capable of handling the next stages of the campaign.
5) And just in case - the bill is re-filed already for next year!!! Delegate Karen Montgomery, this year's prime sponsor, has already filed the bill for next spring's session! So one way or the other, we're going to win this issue!!!
You all are wonderful - despite the frustrations of the session, the part of working with you all - by email, phone, invisible through national alerts, in person, over coffee tables and at polling place actions, has been uplifting and profoundly confirming in the best of our ideals. Thanks so much for all your work, and let's keep rolling on together, Nancy Wallace, for the TrueVoteMD.org core group - Linda, Kevin, Bob, Paul, Shelley, Brian, Walter, the other Kevin, and others! |
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