DRAFT: CVV Press Release

["Joe Pezzillo" <jpezzillo@xxxxxxxxx>]

I repeat, this is only a DRAFT, and therefore please give me your 
feedback ASAP so that it can become final still today. -Joe

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

December 12th, 2003

CITIZENS FOR VERIFIABLE VOTING
contact: Joe Pezzillo, Spokesperson, Citizens for Verifiable Voting,
http://www.coloradovoter.net
	      303-938-8850 jpezzillo@xxxxxxxxx


NEWS: CITIZENS BLOCK PURCHASE OF ELECTRONIC VOTING SYSTEM IN BOULDER,
COLORADO

Boulder, Colorado - An ad hoc group of concerned citizens in Boulder
County, Colorado calling itself Citizens for Verifiable Voting has
convinced the local County Clerk's office to delay the planned purchase
of a new voting system that would have included the controversial
Direct Record Electronic (DRE) vote recording computers and instead
adopt the citizen's resolution that only a Paper Ballot will provide an
adequate level of voter confidence for the upcoming 2004 Election.

"We're extremely grateful to the County Clerk's office for clearly
taking our concerns into consideration and for announcing a position
that appears to be entirely consistent with the Citizen's requests for
a paper ballot," stated Joe Pezzillo, spokesperson for the group, in
attendance at the County Clerk's announcement. "We're also grateful
that we are demonstrating that active and engaged citizens can and do
make a difference, and can stop the irresponsible purchase of DRE
systems."

Indeed, the citizens of Boulder County have been active and engaged,
conducting their own independent process including: four large public
meetings with more than a hundred total attendees; extensive outreach
and education to citizens and the media resulting in repeated press
coverage and including a 100% collaboratively produced website and
active public e-mail list; preparing a Citizen's Resolution calling for
paper ballots that received the written endorsement or support of all
four of Boulder County's political parties; meetings with County
Election officials; legal research and correspondence of clarifications
with the Secretary of State, legislators and vendors; collecting
hundreds of physical signatures on petitions; and a formal presentation
to the Boulder County Commissioners.

The ten-minute presentation -- which included specific legal
explanations of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) showing that DREs are
NOT required to be purchased, as is widely and mistakenly believed --
makes the Citizen's case for voter-verifiable, full-text, physically
marked PAPER BALLOTS, with Pezzillo saying bluntly at one point "Paper
Ballots equals Voter Confidence, no Paper Ballot equals NO voter
confidence."

The full presentation is available via streaming media from the
Citizens for Verifiable Voting website at http://www.coloradovoter.net,
which also hosts an archive of the group's activities, research, and
documents, including the mailing list.

Among CVV's next steps is to prepare materials to help Citizen
Activists mobilize their local communities around this and other issues
related to Electronic Votintg. And as CVV has demonstrated, active and
engaged citizens can have a substantial impact on this issue when they
get involved and take some basic steps.

Concerned Citizen Activists should contact CVV at the contact info
above, via the mailing list, or via the Electronic Frontier
Foundation's (EFF) organizational efforts on this issue, see:
http://www.eff.org/Activism/E-voting/.

For voters in the State of Colorado, a statewide group has been formed
to address a broad range of Electronic Voting issues, including
touch-screens, the ePollbook, and election law reform. Join their
efforts online by visiting their website at
http://www.countthevotecolorado.org


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