I'm really concerned that we may have a national crisis in November. The country is so polarized, and now I hear that both major parties are lining up thousands of lawyers to file election challenges after the results are in.

On top of that, there's this growing lack of confidence in the electronic voting machines of all types. People just don't trust computers to count the votes correctly. In fact, there could be lots of lawsuits just based on electronic voting.

So many lawsuits have already been filed that we could have 50 Floridas in November.

Now, the Election Assistance Commission is warning that election officials should plan for recounts in November, so they're clearly expecting unusual numbers of them, too.

The EAC is recommending that the election be "as transparent as possible." And there's a coalition of organizations that are proposing federal legislation that would ensure that the federal election is fully transparent — just what the EAC wants.

The proposed bill calls for hand-counted paper ballots for Federal races. I know that won't solve all the problems we might face in November, but enacting this bill could just averting the crisis. Otherwise we can expect something like this:

Election "anomalies" followed by lawsuits. Then delays, recounts, and more lawsuits, complicated by the fact that recounts can't be done on electronic machines. Then, at some point, a winner will be announced, but the country is not likely to accept a winner announced after lawsuits, delays, and who-knows-what basis for the decision. Not after 2000. Then chaos.

We hear that there is great concern on Capitol Hill as well about the imminent crisis. We urge you to support our proposal to avert this crisis.

Since this effort must move very quickly, we must find sponsors for the bill immediately — on Republican and one Democrat in both the Senate and the House. With the anticipated outpouring of letters, faxes, e-mails, calls and visits from our large multi-faceted group of supporters to all members of Congress, we believe an overwhelming majority of your fellow House and Senate members from both sides of the aisle will sign on once the bill is introduced.

This is doable. May we count on your support? May I send you more information?