VelvetRevolution.us supports legislation requiring accountability and transparency in elections. Although there are several bills presently pending in Congress proposing to address this, and none of them does everything we hope for, VR believes that a bill introduced by Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ), The Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act (H.R. 550), (complete text of the bill in PDF format here, more info available here) is currently the most comprehensive on this subject and has the best chance of passage. If it does pass, it will begin to fix multiple fundamental problems with our voting systems in time for the 2006 election cycle. Moreover, it currently has over 150 co-sponsors and several of them are even Republicans! This bill is a good starting point and if we pass it now, we will be on a much stronger footing to continue our fight for truly verifiable and transparent elections in the world's most important democracy.

We want Congress to hear what you have to say about this issue and this bill, and therefore, we have made it simple to fill in the form below to quickly send your personal message to both of your Senators and your House Representative. We'll even look them up based on your address, and send them to all the right ones! The Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act (H.R. 550) should be taken up by the House and passed into law this year; signing this petition will submit the message beneath the form below plus your own personal comments. Even if you don't think your particular representatives would agree with your position, it is important for them to hear from you so they will know that people such as yourself are concerned about this issue. As we have seen from the recent tragedy along the Gulf coast, who is elected is really a matter of life and death. Citizens must be able to see proof of their votes, and be able to verify that they are accurately counted.   - fc