SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION 04-010 CONCERNING PAPERLESS VOTING SYSTEMS.

["Paul Tiger" <paul.tiger@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

"This is a State Senate Resolution (not a bill), sorry I don't know what the
number is but I know it was introduced by Sen. Mo Keller ..."

Joe (et al) see:
http://www.leg.state.co.us/clics2004a/csl.nsf/fsbillcont/EE30664863D32757872
56DDE0076626B?Open&file=SJR010_01.pdf


WHEREAS, Since the citizen's right to vote is the bedrock of our
democratic government, fair, clean, honest, and trustworthy elections must
be our constant desire and concern, demanding perpetual attention and
unending diligence; and

WHEREAS, Recognizing doubts and distrust of systems and methods raised by
recent election events, the U.S. Congress passed the "Help America Vote Act
of 2002" (HAVA) and the Colorado legislature passed its own help America
vote act, which demand greater consistency and reliability of voting systems
and processes in the future; and

WHEREAS, Present and foreseeable regulations and standards are allowing
paperless voting equipment, usually called "direct recording
electronic" (DRE), to deny the voter and election officials any tangible
physical evidence connecting the votes as cast with vote counts as reported;
and

WHEREAS, Nonetheless, voting-machinery vendors have responded to this
opportunity by promoting and selling these paperless DRE configurations in
great numbers; and

WHEREAS, Our common everyday experience with computers
makes obvious their fallibility and their vulnerability to inadvertent
failures and deliberate manipulation, and many experts, scientists,
professionals, and journalists have testified and documented numerous
instances and kinds of flaws, weaknesses, and security risks inherent in DRE
systems, as well as unusual and improbable election results from their use,
raising widespread questioning and distrust of paperless DRE technology; and

WHEREAS, Above all, the voter's lack of confidence in such paperless voting
systems is compounded by an intrinsic lack of any tangible evidentiary
trail; and

WHEREAS, The mechanisms of DRE equipment are invisible and concealed from
voters and election officials as well as parties of contending interest,
thus making verification, recount, or audit that is independent of such
paperless DRE utterly impossible; and

WHEREAS, The remedy that cures these ills, which can restore voter
confidence and citizens' trust, is the requirement to produce a ballot,
printed on paper, from any such DRE machine, which the voter can inspect and
approve and cast, along with the requirement to vest these voter-verified
paper ballots as the ultimate and only authoritative documents for any
count, recount, audit, or other verification of results; and

WHEREAS, The technology of printers is commonplace and the means to connect
them to DRE equipment is well understood; now, therefore,

Be It Resolved by the Senate of the Sixty-fourth General Assembly
of the State of Colorado, the House of Representatives concurring herein:
(1) That the state of Colorado finds paperless voting systems offensive to
the desires and concerns of its citizens and their democracy, and a
dangerous threat to election security and accuracy, and to the confidence
and trust of the people in their elections;
(2) That the state of Colorado strongly opposes the claims by vendors and
other proponents of paperless voting systems as insubstantial compared to
the primacy of the state's responsibility and duty to produce accurate and
trustworthy counts of the voters' intentional actions that are credible,
auditable, recountable, and beyond all possible doubt;
(3) That the state of Colorado opposes the deployment or use of any
paperless voting system in any election under its jurisdiction, and requires
that voter-verifiable paper ballots must be deemed to be official ballots,
whether or not their production and use is in addition to, above, or beyond
any voting system improvements required or allowed by HAVA or other
authorities; and
(4) That the state of Colorado urges its congressional representatives, the
federal government and its agencies, and the other states to consider
similar opposition to paperless voting and endorsement of voter-verified
paper ballots.

Be It Further Resolved, That copies of this Joint Resolution be sent to the
Colorado Secretary of State, Colorado's congressional delegation, the
Federal Election Commission (FEC), the Election Assistance Commission (EAC),
the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST), IEEE Workgroup
P1583 for Voting Machinery Standards, the National Association of State
Election Directors (NASED), and the National Association of Secretaries of
State (NASS).