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Motion of the Council of Allegheny County endorsing the provisions of H.R. 5036, currently pending before the United States House of Representatives, and urging the Allegheny County Board of Elections to take certain actions relevant to inquiries made by citizens of the County regarding the County's voting system.
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WHEREAS, the Help America Vote Act, 42 U.S.C. ยง15301 et. seq., (HAVA) made federal funding available to jurisdictions that conduct mandatory modernizations their lever operated voting systems through the purchase of new electronic voting systems; and
WHEREAS, under the terms of the Help America Vote Act, Allegheny County was required to replace all lever voting systems in qualifying precincts within the County in time for the first election for federal office held after January 1, 2006 in order to qualify for this funding; and
WHEREAS, the Chief Executive and members of the Administration conducted an exhaustive evaluation of voting machines for purchase, but were not able to purchase machines that generate voter verified paper records, because a no such machines were certified for use by the Pennsylvania Department of State; and
WHEREAS, while the Help America Vote Act does require that new voting systems purchased with the available federal funding generate a paper record that can be used to audit election results, it does not specifically require that a paper summary of individual voting decisions be made available to every voter before they confirm their selections; and
WHEREAS, the Commission on Federal Election Reform has issued the following recommendation regarding voting machines: "Congress should pass a law requiring that all voting machines be equipped with a voter verifiable paper audit trail and, consistent with HAVA, be fully accessible to voters with disabilities. This is especially important for direct recording electronic (DRE) machines for four reasons: (a) to increase citizens' confidence that their vo...
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