CO HB 1296 Update: PASSED Committee WITH Strong Amendments!

["Joe Pezzillo" <jpezzillo@xxxxxxxxx>]

A quick update on today's State House Committee hearing, Rep Madden's 
House Bill 1296 PASSED COMMITTEE (!!!) with two strengthening 
amendments both in terms of protecting the vote (our desired "paper 
ballot" language is in there) and helping it withstand some of the 
expected attacks against it (the "grandfathering" of existing 
equipment). The amendments and the bill passed this committee with 
strong bi-partisan representation.

Thanks and congratulations to everyone who has worked so hard on this 
issue! Next stop is the Local Government committee where we will need 
everyone's continued support and participation and can expect more 
potential opposition.

As a personal highlight, I want to point out that Billy Compton, the 
State Director of Elections speaking on behalf of the Secretary of 
State, argued against passing this legislation now saying that NIST and 
the EAC should be allowed to finish their standards setting process and 
thus the Legislators should WAIT a year to do anything. If only he'd 
listen to the people, we could have told him those are already proven 
to be losing arguments with elected officials!

We should schedule a group meeting to discuss the state legislation and 
how we can be most effective, and the current status in Boulder County.

Again, a huge round of congratulations and many many thanks to everyone 
who is working to protect Our Democracy. Today was only a small step 
forward in a lengthy process, but it was the best possible first step 
that the State could have taken and sent a strong message about the 
importance of this issue here in Colorado.

Joe