Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

  • Shop
  • Subscribe to BMG
  • Contact
  • Log In
  • Front Page
  • All Posts
  • About
  • Rules
  • Events
  • Register on BMG

A disagreement with Mike Capuano

December 7, 2009 By cos

    We got those touchscreen machines all over the country after the 2000 election made a national spectacle of the problems with punch card voting machines, but Massachusetts had its statewide spectacle of the same thing four years earlier, with the 1996 election for Congress. Back then, most of Massachusetts used punch cards. Bill Delahunt narrowly lost in the 10th district, and after a recount of a few selected portions of the district, he was still behind, but he took it to court and the court called for a full recount. When all the ballots in the district were re-counted by hand, Delahunt won, and in the process, Massachusetts saw hanging chads and all the other problems that Florida showed the country in 2000. By the 2000 election, all of the punch card machines in Massachusetts had switched to optical scan.

    But Somerville was one of the few places in MA that already used optical scan before the 1996 spoiled election. Mike Capuano had been elected mayor in 1989, by a narrow margin, and although there had been no controversy about the vote count in that election, he saw the potential problem and felt strongly that we needed a reliable vote counting system that people could trust, and that could allow for real hand recounts if needed. As mayor, he made Somerville the first place (I believe) in Massachusetts to switch from punch cards to optical scan.

Capuano recalled how he’d had to scramble for money to replace Somerville’s voting machines.  Somerville was not a rich city, and it was tough to fit this into the budget, but he felt it was very important, and had to cut some things he’d rather have not.

Now, this Holt bill was going to make lots of federal funding available to any election district that had touchscreen machines, regardless of whether they could afford the upgrades themselves – including many places that had splurged on touchscreen voting machines because they had money.  Capuano felt very strongly that the federal funds should be means-tested, focusing on helping places (like Somerville back when he was mayor) that would have trouble affording voting machine upgrades, without giving the bulk of the money to rich counties that didn’t need it.

Okay, I thought, that’s reasonable.  I want a federal law requiring paper, but means-testing the federal funding for it sounded like a good idea.  So I called Rush Holt’s office.

It turns out that Rush Holt agreed that it would be better to means-test the funds.  However, his bill wasn’t actually adding a lot of money.  In 2002, the Federal “Help America Vote Act” – which was passed in response to the 2000 election scandal, and which spurred a lot of places to buy touchscreen voting machines – had made a few large pools of federal funding available to places that had punch card or other bad old voting machines.  HAVA said nothing about requiring paper, and Holt was partially fixing that flaw.  The funding Holt’s bill made available was actually mostly from what was left over from the original HAVA funding pools; in other words, in addition to requiring paperless voting machines to be upgraded to add paper, he was also modifying the rules on an existing pool of funding for upgrading voting machines, to say that money could be used for these upgrades, but could not be used to buy paperless voting machines.

Holt thought means-testing was reasonable, but felt that if adding yet more restrictions on a pool of money that was already available to all these places, would bring more opposition.  In addition to members of Congress who didn’t care for requiring paper, he’d also get opposition from members of Congress whose districts were eligible for HAVA funding but would lose access to most of that funding under the new restrictions.  Holt preferred to fight one battle at a time, and to take a positive step that had a chance of passing, rather than add more rules to it that might make it better but would give it no chance of passing.

I got all the data from Holt’s office: What portions of HAVA made funding available, the sizes of all the funding pools, how much was left in each one, how much money Holt’s bill was adding, and so on.  I called Capuano’s office again, and gave them all of that, along with what I thought was the right way of looking at this:

    The lack of a requirement for paper was a flaw in the original HAVA legislation, and the lack of means-testing of federal funding was a flaw in the original HAVA legislation.

    Rush Holt was attempting to fix one of these flaws; while he’d be happy to fix both, he was quite sure he couldn’t get the votes to do that. It wasn’t fair to blame Holt’s bill, which aimed to fix one of HAVA’s flaws, for not fixing another, separate flaw. It wasn’t actually adding a significant amount of new funding, so whether it passed or not, almost the same amount of money would be available without means testing anyway.

Capuano’s office thanked me for the call, and said they’d pass along everything I’d said to the Congressman.

Shortly after, Capuano co-sponsored Holt’s bill.

Please share widely!
fb-share-icon
Tweet
0
0

Filed Under: User Tagged With: capuano, congress, diebold, election-reform, legislation, ma-sen, massachusetts, mike-capuano, rush-holt, senate, touchscreen-voting, voting-machines

Comments

  1. bob-neer says

    December 7, 2009 at 2:27 pm

    Thanks, Cos.

  2. neilsagan says

    December 7, 2009 at 2:59 pm

    provide the same quality substantive give-and-take with concerned constituents on important issues in the future.

    <

    p>The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior.

    VOTE CAPUANO Tuesday.

    • jarstar says

      December 8, 2009 at 7:21 am

      and venture a guess that if Martha Coakley saved a child from a burning building, you’d still find some way of criticizing her for it. I work for an agency that does a lot of work with the AG’s office, and we often get calls from that office after a citizen has contacted them to complain about us, or ask a question about some matter that is within our domain. They jump all over these calls, making sure that the questions are answered and that the constituent receives a prompt, thorough response. If we should be in the loop, they provide the constituent with a contact in my agency. The constituent doesn’t always like what they hear, but they do get good service.

      <

      p>I’d consider that a reasonable predictor of future behavior.  

      • neilsagan says

        December 8, 2009 at 10:53 am

        not everyone does

        <

        p>

        I have to judge her based on my interactions with her office. I have a list of five different issues that I have either spoken to her or her office about over the last three years. None have been acted on. A few, like gas pricing hearings to find out why we pay higher prices in the Berkshires as opposed to areas like Phillipston-Templeton; or why we can’t provide a list of companies raising charitable funds with how much goes to the charity as opposed to the paid fundraiser, have statewide implications. Yet, I have been told there is nothing we can do on my concerns or there has been no response.

        I would however, like to be very clear. My vote is not against another candidate, but because I believe that Mike Capuano is clearly the best choice. Mike Capuano has always answered my phone calls. I called his office recently over the Financial Stability bill to advocate for some amendments that would help small communities. His staff was responsive, knowledgeable, and ready to work on my concerns. He is familiar with our area and always discusses the Berkshires with a knowledge that most from his side of the state don’t have. link

Recommended Posts

  • No posts liked yet.

Recent User Posts

Predictions Open Thread

December 22, 2022 By jconway

This is why I love Joe Biden

December 21, 2022 By fredrichlariccia

Garland’s Word

December 19, 2022 By terrymcginty

Some Parting Thoughts

December 19, 2022 By jconway

Beware the latest grift

December 16, 2022 By fredrichlariccia

Thank you, Blue Mass Group!

December 15, 2022 By methuenprogressive

Recent Comments

  • blueeyes on Beware the latest griftSo where to, then??
  • Christopher on Some Parting ThoughtsI've enjoyed our discussions as well (but we have yet to…
  • Christopher on Beware the latest griftI can't imagine anyone of our ilk not already on Twitter…
  • blueeyes on Beware the latest griftI will miss this site. Where are people going? Twitter?…
  • chrismatth on This site (will be disabled on) December 31, 2022I joined BMG late - 13 years ago next month and three da…
  • SomervilleTom on Geopolitics of FusionEVERY un-designed, un-built, and un-tested technology is…
  • Charley on the MTA on This site (will be disabled on) December 31, 2022That’s a great idea, and I’ll be there on Sunday. It’s a…

Archive

@bluemassgroup on Twitter

#mapoli

dartmouthgop Dartmouth GOP @dartmouthgop ·
39m

Congratulations @JR_Milligan the @massgop is moving in a positive direction #mapoli

John Milligan @JR_Milligan

Excited to get to work! https://twitter.com/lisakashinsky/status/1620923169879252992

Reply on Twitter 1621142389057519617 Retweet on Twitter 1621142389057519617 Like on Twitter 1621142389057519617 Twitter 1621142389057519617
suehallett9 Chainsaw Sue 🇺🇸🇬🇧 @suehallett9 ·
41m

#GetInvolved #BeTheChange #AmericaFirst #AmericaStrong #PrecinctStrategy Let’s take back OUR #Conservative #MaGOP #mapoli We Got This. #Warriors @RonaldVining

Precinct Strategy 2 get Common Sense Election Laws @DanSchultz2

Let’s do something. Precinct Strategy podcast February 1 2023 https://rumble.com/v2803gi-precinct-strategy-become-a-savior-of-the-republic-dan-schultz-february-1-20.html…… Will we make 2023 The Year of the Precinct?
@Bannons_WarRoom

@maureen_bannon

@Maspy45

@SueHallett9

@bushmillsvassar

@CitizenFreePres

@realLizUSA https://twitter.com/Sassafrass_84/status/1620872499708977152

Reply on Twitter 1621141956054380546 Retweet on Twitter 1621141956054380546 Like on Twitter 1621141956054380546 Twitter 1621141956054380546
cambridgegirl CambridgeGirl @cambridgegirl ·
46m

Why can't all politicians be like #WilliamGalvin @BillGalvin4MA ?!

#bospoli #mapoli #politicians

https://www.wgbh.org/news/politics/2023/01/31/mass-secretary-of-state-galvin-turns-down-20-raise

Reply on Twitter 1621140698144862211 Retweet on Twitter 1621140698144862211 Like on Twitter 1621140698144862211 1 Twitter 1621140698144862211
wtfdic_hour Brian Riccio @wtfdic_hour ·
49m

I certainly hope that newly seated Rep. Krassner can get the slime off of the seat that the whiny Republican left on it. Term limits, Lenny. Remember running on them? #mapoli? @massgop! #cya!

Former State Rep. Lenny Mirra @LennyMirra

There’s an irony to my time in the legislature formally ending…only to be followed by a vote on the House Rules.

I ran for office to oppose the smoke-filled rooms of Beacon Hill…all of which are sanctioned by House Rules. I Will always urge a ‘no’ vote on the rules package. https://twitter.com/adambassofmass/status/1620873312988725249

Reply on Twitter 1621139837716942848 Retweet on Twitter 1621139837716942848 Like on Twitter 1621139837716942848 Twitter 1621139837716942848
maconsumers Massachusetts Recreational Consumer Council @maconsumers ·
57m

Join us this Saturday at noon for the kickoff reading of ‘From Here to Equality’ by William Darity and A.Kirsten Mullen that was put together by @ne_ados in advocacy for the liberation and reparation of American Freedmen https://www.eventbrite.com/e/515689760957
#mapoli #wheresour40acres

Reply on Twitter 1621137901047386113 Retweet on Twitter 1621137901047386113 Like on Twitter 1621137901047386113 Twitter 1621137901047386113
pauldiegocraney Paul Diego Craney @pauldiegocraney ·
1h

For starters, ixnay on the trendy PC term “Latinx” to describe these voters. Asked how they describe themselves,
46% chose Latino, 36% Hispanic. Just five percent in a poll with a +/-3.5% margin of error chose “Latinx.” @kelleratlarge

https://massterlist.com/2023/01/30/keller-what-latino-voters-really-want/ #mapoli

Reply on Twitter 1621133293839331328 Retweet on Twitter 1621133293839331328 1 Like on Twitter 1621133293839331328 1 Twitter 1621133293839331328
Load More

From our sponsors




Google Calendar







Search

Archives

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter




Copyright © 2023 Owned and operated by BMG Media Empire LLC. Read the terms of use. Some rights reserved.