PenceBlog: National Journal on Select Committee - U.S. Congressman Mike Pence : 6th District Of Indiana

National Journal's Technology Daily has an update on the Select Committee to Investigate Voting Irregularities of August 2, 2007 here (you will probably need a subscription).

An excerpt:

The panel delivered an interim report Thursday on its investigation into an Aug. 2 vote on an amendment to the Agriculture Department's annual spending bill. The measure would have barred illegal immigrants from certain federally funded programs. Republicans argue that Democrats contributed to the measure's defeat by mishandling an electronic voting problem.

The panel will reconstruct the sequence of events that led to Republicans vacating the chamber in frustration. Among the circumstances to be examined will be the operation of the voting system, including messages from the chair during and after the vote, and the relationship of paper votes to electronic records.

"I want to know what happened, and I want to make sure it never happens again," Mike Pence of Indiana, the committee's ranking Republican, said Tuesday. He added that the probe "will be greatly aided by the fact that a lot of it was recorded on film." There are audio files from both the podium microphones and the recording clerks' microphones.

"This was a conflict between parties, man and machine," Pence said. "The minority and the electronic voting machine said that the Republican motion to recommit [the bill to committee] prevailed. [The majority said] the motion to recommit failed."

That system "broke down to the extent that the minority walked off the floor for the first time in my career," he added.

A joint letter signed by all members of the committee will request $300,000 to start its work, said Mark Forest, a spokesman for committee Chairman William Delahunt, D-Mass.

The House clerk's office has been ordered to preserve "all records, documents, recordings, electronic submissions or other material, regardless of form," related to the vote. Pence said the House clerk testified last week that all such information has been kept.

posted by Pence Press Office # 1:44 PM