The Mercury
News
Posted on Thu, Mar. 25,
2004
Group that called electronic vote secure
got makers' aid
By LINDA K.
HARRIS
Philadelphia Inquirer
The Election Center, which trains election workers
and advises Congress and government agencies on election process issues, has
taken donations from manufacturers of electronic voting machines even as it
has issued strong statements supporting the security of the
machines.
The Houston-based nonprofit organization
bills itself as a nonpartisan group representing election officials from
throughout the country.
Its executive director, R. Doug Lewis,
confirmed this week that the center had taken donations from makers of
electronic voting machines - Sequoia Voting Systems Inc. of Oakland, Calif., and
Electronic Systems & Software Inc. of Omaha, Neb.
In addition, donations came from "probably Diebold" Inc. of North Canton,
Ohio, Lewis said.
The Sequoia donations came to light on
the organization's latest 990 IRS filing, a copy of which was reviewed by The
Inquirer. It inadvertently revealed donations of $10,000 per year from 1997
through 2000. The IRS usually removes such names before documents are made
public.
Meanwhile, the Sequoia voting machines,
which in the Philadelphia region are used in
Montgomery, Gloucester and Burlington Counties, will be tested by Montgomery County officials today after two
complaints were lodged about the machines in the November
elections.
Lewis issued a report last year saying
that "well-intentioned people, some of them even highly educated and
respected, scare voters and public officials with claims that the voting
equipment and/or its software can be manipulated to change the outcome of
elections."
The report went on to say: "Do not be
misled into believing that elections are reliant upon technology which can be
manipulated... . It may be possible to do many things, but like time travel
(which is theoretically possible), it is highly unlikely at this
time."
Lewis said he did not think accepting
donations from the manufacturers presented any conflict of interest or breach
of ethics.
"I never approved a voting system
anywhere in America," Lewis said. "The systems
were approved by independent testing
laboratories."
"We train a lot of election officials,"
he added. Lewis said no voting system could be totally protected. "What you
look for is that people go to reasonable lengths to make sure that elections
systems cannot be manipulated. We have said, and I think legitimately so, it
is exceedingly difficult to try to manipulate an election and do so and remain
undetected."
Alfie Charles, vice president of business
development for Sequoia, said the company donated the money to further the
work of the Election Center in its training of
officials.
"I don't think the Election Center has ever favored or done anything
to benefit one company over another, nor would anyone expect them to do that,"
Charles said.