FW: Presidential candidate Kucinich: suspend electronic voting

["Pete Klammer" <pklammer@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

One more reason I like Dennis ...
--
Pete Klammer, P.E. / ACM(1970), IEEE, ICCP(CCP), NSPE(PE), NACSE(NSNE)
   3200 Routt Street / Wheat Ridge, Colorado 80033-5452
 (303)233-9485 / Fax:(303)274-6182 / Mailto:PKlammer@xxxxxxx
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-----Original Message-----
A statement on e-voting from Congressman - and presidential candidate -
Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, who says he will bring the issues to the Election
Assistance Commission on May 5.

http://kucinich.us/statements/statement-042304.php
Kucinich calls for suspension of electronic voting
April 23, 2004

Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, who has been sounding
warning alarms regarding electronic voting systems since he began his
campaign last year, today called on federal, state and local election
officials to suspend immediately the implementation of any voting systems
that do not provide a 100 percent reliable paper-trail back-up to
corroborate results.

A decision yesterday by the eight-member California Voting Systems and
Procedures Panel that 15,000 electronic voting machines in four counties be
banned in the November election because of glitches in the March primary
election is more than enough evidence that these systems could undermine the
integrity and affect the results of November's general election, Kucinich
said.

Especially in terms of the Presidential election, Kucinich said, we cannot
entrust the future of our country to technologies that are flawed, suspect,
and proven to have failed, especially when those technologies have been
developed by companies that have their own political agendas.

Diebold Election Systems, which came under the harshest criticism from the
California elections panel, is headed by Chief Executive Officer Walden
O'Dell, who last year became active in the re-election effort of President
Bush, even attending a strategy meeting with wealthy Bush benefactors at the
President's private ranch in Texas. Soon after, O'Dell wrote a fundraising
letter where he said he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral
votes to the president next year."

Although Diebold is the most embattled voting equipment company, Newsday
reported that paperless systems made by Sequoia Voting Systems Inc. and
other competitors also expose elections to malicious attack, software
glitches and mechanical errors that could delete or alter millions of
ballots. The story went on to report a variety of other problems in Indiana,
Maryland, and other states. According to Newsday, Because votes that only
exist in electronic form can be altered or deleted, Oregon, New Hampshire
and Illinois require paper ballots; and California, Missouri and Nevada will
require paper backups on touchscreen terminals by 2006. The newspaper also
reported that Secretaries of state in Washington and West Virginia are
calling for paper trails, while Ohio is reconsidering the switch to new
machines.

Kucinich said he will take his challenges to the newly created federal
agency charged with overseeing electronic voting, the U.S. Election
Assistance Commission, established in January, which will conduct a public
hearing in Washington, D.C. on May 5.

The technological problems are real, Kucinich said, and the potential for
further problems, mischief, and outright fraud is equally real, and far more
dangerous.

Extensive information on electronic voting systems is available at
http://www.kucinich.us/e-voting/intro.php