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Fwd: Get a Load of this!
Thought some of you would find this interesting at a minimum, forwarded with permission. -Joe
Begin forwarded message:
Date: April 22, 2004 2:35:26 PM MDT
Subject: Get a Load of this!
Return-Path: <Bill.Compton@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
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From: Bill.Compton@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2004 07:19:54 -0800
To: ccorry@xxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Document
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Senators, Representatives, and Citizens:
My faith in the security and accuracy of electronic voting, already at an extremely low ebb after serving on the IEEE P1583 voting equipment standards committee since its inception nearly four years ago, is even further eroded when I receive obvious computer viruses from Colorado's principal election official, Bill Compton, Esq., as I did in the above message. Note that there is no suggestion in the header information that someone spoofed his address.
Now I have no idea whether this is a deliberate attack or whether Mr. Compton's computer was inadvertently infected and simply propagated this virus. Nor does it matter. However, until Mr. Compton can demonstrate that the Colorado state election office has sufficient technical skills and resources to at least thwart computer viruses, Mr. Compton and his superior, Donetta Davidson, have no basis, and a demonstrable lack of technical skills, from which to promote and pursue electronic vote counting. Nor is this my first encounter with Mr. Compton's lack of technical expertise. And the lack of computer technical skills is certain to be considerably less at the county level, where elections are actually conducted, and the dangers are greatest.
Such technical incompetence on the part of our second-highest state election official dramatically underscores the need for Senator Moe Keller's joint resolution SJR 04-010 and the dangers inherent in House Bill 04-1227 drafted under Mr. Compton's supervision, and currently before the Colorado Senate State, Veterans, and Military Affairs committee. CAMBER has effectively pointed out the many shortcomings and dangers of the version of HB 04-1227 passed by the Colorado House in a previous communication with the Senate committee.
I would urge the Senate State, Veterans, and Military Affairs committee to consider the low level of technical competence so amply demonstrated in the Secretary of State's election office when considering statements and testimony in support of the very dangerous legislation proposed by her in HB 04-1227. The perils of such legislation are doubly enhanced in a state that requires all recounts be done by the same method as the original vote count. Thus, with electronic vote counting there is no means of verifying the vote other than believing what the computer tells us. That is GIGO in reverse, Garbage In, Gospel Out. In more than 40 years of working with, and teaching, computers I have yet to learn to trust such machines, particularly where no effective standards exist. The multitudinous election scandals of the past several years involving electronic vote counting machines make it abundantly clear that inadequate testing has been done on these machines. Numerous problems with both reliability and security with computer voting surfaced again in the March elections in California, and the California Secretary of State is presently considering decertifying all paperless touch screen voting equipment immediately.
Thus, I would consider it foolhardy in the extreme for Colorado to plunge ahead with the legislation proposed by Sec. of State Donetta Davidson and her chief election officer, Mr. Bill Compton. The integrity of our elections is at stake and I urge you to listen to the many voices of independent technical experts who are virtually unanimous in their opposition to the use of unverifiable electronic voting machines.
Charles E. Corry, Ph.D., F.G.S.A.
--
455 Bear Creek Road
Colorado Springs, Colorado 80906-5820
Telephone: (719) 520-1089
Personal home page: http://corry.ws
Curriculum vitae: http://www.marquiswhoswho.net/charleselmocorry/Default.aspx
The good men may do separately is small compared with what they may do collectively.
Benjamin Franklin
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