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ProtectOurElections is a national collaboration of grassroots organizations that have joined together  to reclaim our democracy, providing oversight to rescue our elections from partisan politics and privatization. 

Five recent developments have harmed our elections in significant ways:

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A hand-marked paper ballot is essential for every vote cast. That means, among other things, that Direct Recording Electronic voting systems (DREs), which do not have paper ballots, have no place in our democracy.

The Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act (HR 2894), introduced last year by Rush Holt, would replace DRE systems by 2014 and is supported by many organizations, including some endorsers of this campaign. Other endorsers of this campaign do not support HR 2894 as written but would consider doing so with the following amendments:

• Assistive paper-ballot marking devices for optional use by the disabled or other voters who wish to use them ONLY IF the voter declines the use of a hand-marked paper ballot first before voting.
• Replace all DRE systems in time for the 2012 general election.

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Election Protection Bills

We have reviewed dozens of federal election protection related bills in both the U.S. House and Senate. What follows are bills that we strongly support. While there are occasional small changes we might call for here and there in some of them, overall, we believe these initiatives are important. Nonetheless, we value your input so please let us know at info@protectourelections.org and we will work with legislators to improve them as they work their way through committees and to the floors of each chamber.

Paper Ballot Bill – A hand-marked paper ballot is essential for every vote cast. That means, among other things, that Direct Recording Electronic voting systems (DREs), which do not have paper ballots, have no place in our democracy.

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Update: December 8, 2011:

Senator Bernie Sanders proposes a Constitutional Amendment to overturn Citizens United by denying corporate personhood.

Click Here to read the text of the amendment

Click Here to endorse this amendment

Update: November 16, 2011:

Congress introduces a Constitutional Amendment which would overturn the Citizens United ruling. FreeSpeechForPeople.Org launches an online petition supporting the amendment.

Click Here to sign

Update: October 22, 2011:

CREDO Action launches an online petition urging congressmembers to sign Louise Slaughter's letter calling for a criminal investigation of Clarence Thomas

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Protect Our Elections is a new campaign to push for passage of pending national legislation to protect the votes and public elections of millions of Americans. We have identified common sense federal legislation that will help ensure the fairness of elections, starting with the 2010 mid-term election. It is necessary to call on Congress to demand passage of these important bills.

Specifically, passage of legislation to stop unfair voter challenges, purging of voter rolls, felon disenfranchisement, misleading election information, unlimited corporate financing, and mandatory photo IDs in federal elections will protect voters this year. In addition, a strong, paper ballot requirement, to be fully implemented by 2012, will help protect our elections in time for the next presidential election and mitigate the threat from Internet voting.

You can help in the following ways:

1) Sign the petition to tell your Congress Members to pass this pending legislation. Every person who signs on will have their name added to a second petition that we will deliver to Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid demanding quick passage of these bills.

2) Call your Congress Members and tell them that you want strong election protection legislation supported by ProtectOurElections.org passed this year. Enough delay! No legislation is more important than that which shores up our increasingly vulnerable electoral system. You can find the phone numbers here.

3) Urge your friends and favorite organizations to join with this campaign to protect our elections by calling on Congress to act now!

4) Spread the word through social networking tools so this campaign goes viral on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Let us know when you post something so we can add it to this site.
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