From: "Richard Andrews" <rich@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: November 4, 2003 12:38:10 AM MST
To: "Joe Pezzillo" <jpezzillo@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Draft of Citizens for Verifiable Voting - Position Statement
Joe Pezzillo and Boulder County citizens,
Attached and below is adraft of the position statement. I have tried to preserve the essence of what was presented at tonight's meeting, but I adjusted some of the language to make it read better. Hopefully it captures the spirit and intent of the group, and specifically the major points of concern of the group.
Rich Andrews
Citizens for Verifiable Voting
a Boulder County non-partisan organization concerned with preservation of our democracy, insist that Boulder County immediately stop its process of selecting and purchasing new electronic voting machines.
We demand that the county only use a transparent, honest, verifiable and accurate voting system that protects and ensures the sanctity, privacy and integrity of every persons vote, the most important act of citizenship in a democracy.
We find that none of the systems under consideration by Boulder County can meet our concerns, none provide for a secure and verifiable paper trail with meaningful recountability, and therefore none give us confidence in the results.
Furthermore, since technical standards for election systems have not yet been developed by National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) as required under the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), it is premature, fiscally irresponsible, and imprudent for Boulder County to select any new voting system at this time.
We are very concerned with the vulnerability of all electronic systems for fraud, irretrievable data loss, and disenfranchisement in vote recording and counting. We do recognize that some elements of electronic devices may be needed to allow citizens with disabilities to generate verifiable paper ballots, in compliance with HAVA and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Specifically, we call on Boulder County officials, our state and national elected officials and our fellow citizens to:
Ø<x-tad-smaller> </x-tad-smaller>Insist on the use paper ballots as the single, official record of the vote;
Ø<x-tad-smaller> </x-tad-smaller>Allow no secret or proprietary software in any voting machines or vote counting machines;
Ø<x-tad-smaller> </x-tad-smaller>Recognize that accuracy is the most important aspect in the elections, not speed of completing the counts; and
Ø<x-tad-smaller> </x-tad-smaller>Support election reform laws at the local, state, and national level that encompass and resolve all of the above concerns.
Prepared this day of November 3, 2003 by Citizens for Verifiable Voting, a Boulder County based non-partisan group of citizens dedicated to protecting the principles of our democracy.
Attachment:
Citizens for Verifiable Voting Statement.doc
Description: MS-Word document