Goodbye, Ohio

Ohio has just passed through its House of Representatives HB3, which is the scariest voting bill I've heard about yet. Their Senate is expected to pass it soon. From AlterNet:

HB3's most publicized provision will require positive identification before casting a vote. But it also opens voter registration activists to partisan prosecution, exempts electronic voting machines from public scrutiny, quintuples the cost of citizen-requested statewide recounts and makes it illegal to challenge a presidential vote count or, indeed, any federal election result in Ohio. When added to the recently passed HB1, which allows campaign financing to be dominated by the wealthy and by corporations, and along with a Rovian wish list of GOP attacks on the ballot box, democracy in Ohio could be all but over.
The GOP is ramming similar bills through state legislatures around the U.S., starting with Georgia and Indiana. The ID requirements in particular have provoked widespread opposition from newspapers such as the New York Times. The Times, among others, argues that the ID requirements and the costs associated with them, constitute an unconstitutional discriminatory poll tax.

Y'know, I almost inserted a (sic) after "GOP" in the article. I can't call the Republicans the "Grand Old Party" with a straight face. But I digress.

We need HR 550, folks. We need to be able to verify our votes. Our electronic voting machines SHOULD BE subject to public scrutiny. Please, first sign the petition, then write your U.S. Representative to urge their support. And, if you live in Ohio, get in touch with your state Senator now and say NO! to HB3.

(Hat tip to Suburban Guerrilla)

Technorati tags: HR 550,Votes,Elections,Verified Voting,Rush Holt