Thursday, July 28, 2005

House Voting Machines from Diebold?

Talking Points Memo

Something very weird happened in the CAFTA vote last night. The bill passed the House by only two votes -- amidst what's been described as unprecedented arm-twisting and gaming on the floor.
One seemingly-strong opponent of the bill, Rep. Charles Taylor (R) of North Carolina, was reported this morning as not voting.

But he says that's not true. This morning his office was telling constituents that he had in fact voted "NO" and that the House clerk had "botched" the record and failed to record his vote.

Here is the statement his office just put out this morning ...

I voted NO on the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) in the vote last night. I informed the Majority Leader and the Appropriations Chairman I was voting no, as I had informed my constituents I was voting no. Rep. Howard Coble and I voted "no" together. Due to an error, my "no" vote did not record on the voting machine. The Clerk's computer logs verified that I had attempted to vote, but it did not show my "nay". I am re-inserting my "No" vote in the record. But even with my NO vote re-inserted, the bill still passed.

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