Faith-Based Paperless Voting on Trial

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2004

Faith-Based Paperless Voting on Trial

Growing Scrutiny Spurs Movement for a Transparent Elections

As voters go to the polls today to choose the Presidential nominees for the Democrat Party and to advise the Assembly on the the future design of Georgia's flag, more and more voters and media professionals join those who are scrutinizing Georgia's elections. This evening, ABC's Nightline will broadcast its report on the subject featuring interviews with Secretary of State Cathy Cox and with Roxanne Jekot, a Cumming Georgia programmer and an activist for transparent elections who reviewed the source code for Georgia's proprietary voting machine software which was left on an unsecured ftp site by Diebold, Incorporated.

"Concern for the transparency and integrity of Georgia elections continues to grow," said Hugh Esco, chair of the Voter Choice Coalition and political coordinator of the Georgia Green Party. The Green Party office phone started ringing early this morning with reports of anomolies and problems from the Diebold machines. "We're pleased that this important issue has finally begun to gain some of the attention it deserves."

"I look forward to the hearing on Thursday when we can point the legislators to the election laws which already require voter verified paper ballots," said Ms. Jekot, referring to Thursday's 4:00 pm meeting of the Senate State and Local Government Operations Committee to which SB-500 has been assigned. The Committee is expected to see demonstrations of Diebold's election machines (used in Georgia) as well as those of a competitor's machines which already provides a paper ballot for verification by the voter and the auditing of the electronic count. Paper Ballot activists hope the Committee will be ready to take action on SB-500 once they've seen what is possible.

"Nightline" is carried by ABC affiliates across Georgia, starting at 11:30 pm.

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