interview with former EAC chair on BradBlog.com

["Margit Johansson" <margitjo@xxxxxxxxx>]

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3491

EXCLUSIVE: FIRST BUSH-APPOINTED CHAIR OF U.S.
ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMMISSION SAYS 'NO
STANDARDS' FOR E-VOTING DEVICES, SYSTEM 'RIPE FOR STEALING ELECTIONS'!
Former Chair Says He 'Was Deceived', EAC and
Federal Efforts for Election Reform 'A Charade', 'Travesty'!
In Stark Contrast to Current EAC Chair, Rev.
DeForest Soaries Blasts White House, Congress in
Transcript of Unaired Interview from Major Broadcast Network!

The BRAD BLOG has received an EXCLUSIVE partial
transcript from a recent, unaired interview by a
major broadcast network with former U.S.
Elections Assistance Commission (EAC) chair Rev. DeForest Soaries.

Soaries was appointed by George W. Bush as the
first chair of the commission created by the
federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) in the wake
of the 2000 Presidential Election Debacle. In the
interview, available here for the first time,
Soaries excoriates both Congress and the White
House, referring to their dedication to reforming
American election issues as "a charade" and "a
travesty," and says the system now in place is
"ripe for stealing elections and for fraud."

Having resigned from the commission in April of
2005, Soaries goes on to explain that he believes
he was "deceived" by both the White House and
Congress, and that neither were ever "really serious about election reform."

The explosive comments are the latest evidence
highlighting serious deficiencies in the federal
body, created by HAVA for oversight of elections
systems, including new electronic voting devices,
and standards for the use and security of those systems.

In the unaired interview, conducted last August,
Soaries says there are "no standards" for voting
systems and that Congress and the White House
"made things worse through the passage of the Help America Vote Act."

Due to underfunding and lack of attention to the
EAC and the Election Reform it was supposed to
oversee, Soaries says we now have an "inability
to trust the technology that we use" to count
votes in our American democracy, even as "we're
spending a billion dollars a week in Iraq."

"We know more today about how to build a machine
to take pictures of rocks on Mars than we know
about how to build a machine to safeguard the
American right to vote," complained Soaries in the interview.

On Electronic Voting System standards ­ which
HAVA mandated would be created by the EAC ­
Soaries blasts both the White House and Congress
for failing to supply them with the needed
resources to complete the mandate, both for the
federal government and the states that were relying on them to do so.

"[T]he states were forced to comply and they were
asking us for guidance. We were ill-equipped to
provide guidance. We didn't begin our work until
January 2004 and we spent the first three months
of our work looking for office space. Here we
were, the first federal commission, responsible
for implementing federal law in the area of
election administration and for the first three
months we didn't even have an address. And we
physically had to walk around Washington DC
looking for office space. This was a travesty. I
was basically deceived by the leaders of the
House, the Senate and the White House."

"Someone has got to be able to say, no one in
America should use machine 'A' ever again," he
says, in reference to the EAC's failure to
decertify electronic voting systems even after
they have been proven to be easily vulnerable to hackers and tampering.

"And if it's not EAC," he continued, "it's got to
be someone. Someone in America has got to hold
America accountable for protecting the most
fundamental right in a democracy and that is the right to vote."

The straightforward comments from the EAC's first
chair are in stark contrast to the actions of his
Bush-appointed replacement, the current EAC head,
Paul DiGregorio. The outgoing chair, DiGregorio,
whose term has now ended, made news several days
ago when it was discovered he had allowed the
commission to withhold the release of a May 2006
report revealing claims of epidemic "Voter Fraud"
­ as made by GOP operatives in order to push an
agenda calling for restrictive, unconstitutional
Photo ID laws at polling polaces ­ are wholly unfounded.

Where Soaries was disappointed at the lack of
interest by officials for true reform by the EAC
during his tenure, his predecessor appears to
have been using the post as an arm of the White
House to continue its manipulation and perversion
of the American electoral system.