Georgia Greens Welcome Investigation of E-Voting

GA Greens Welcome Investigation of Computerized Voting

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 21st, 2003

Georgia Greens Welcome Investigation of Computerized Voting
Call for Open Source Software and Voter Inspected Paper Ballots

"We welcome Governor Perdue's call for an investigation of the state's computerized election machinery," said Badili Jones, Co-Chair of the Georgia Green Party and of the Green Party of the United States. The Georgia Party today announced its endorsement for passage of Senator Nadine Thomas' SB-340 which would restore integrity to Georgia's elections.

Secretary Cox has scheduled a series of briefings at Governor Perdue's request to re-examine the state's new computerized voting machines. The first one is for members of the Georgia Congressional Delegation and will be held at 10:00 am on Friday, August 22nd, 2003 at the Center for Voting Systems at Kennesaw State University.

In recent actions the Georgia Green Party endorsed not only the Thomas bill in the Georgia Senate, but also HR-2239 by Rep. Holt in the U.S. Congress as well as the sign-on resolution being circulated by Dr. David Dill, founder of VerifiedVoting.org and a political scientist with Stanford University.

"We regret that Secretary Cox could not hear our earlier appeals on this matter," said Hugh Esco, the Party's political coordinator and the Chair of the Voter Choice Coalition, a multi-partisan advocacy group first organized in 1999 to push for open access to the ballot. In 2003, the Coalition expanded its agenda to call for proportional representation and an audit-able computerized voting system.

"We hear from a lot of folks who question whether voting can make a difference. It is vital that we protect the integrity of the elections which give legitimacy to our self-governmence," said Esco. "It is a shame that an on-air phone call from Illinois has more leverage with our elected officials than do Georgia citizens."

At its May 17th, 2003 Annual Convention in Pooler Georgia, the Georgia Green Party adopted amendments to its Platform, including the following provision:

We advocate that the new electronic voting machines implemented during the 2002 election cycle be retrofitted with printers to provide for a voter-inspected paper trail, which will be collected and tabulated to confirm the validity of preliminary results generated electronically. We insist that the election machinery be driven by open source and peer reviewed software, open to inspection by any voter.

In other positions adopted as a part of the Party Platform by earlier Conventions, the Georgia Green Party says that creating true democracy in Georgia will also require open access to the ballot, democratically and publicly financed election campaigns and the use of proportional representation to ensure that elected officials serving in the executive enjoy majority support and that deliberative bodies represent the entire public discourse in proportion to the support each political perspective enjoys among the electorate.

Secretary Cox is scheduled to brief members of the Georgia Congressional Delegation at 10:00 am, Friday, August 22nd, 2003 at the Center for Voting Systems at Kennesaw State University. Subsequent Friday morning events are now being planned for members of the Georgia General Assembly, and for members of the public.

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For background information:
http://www.voterchoice.org/auditableballots.php

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