Greetings, I thought you and Andrew Dobbs might want to investigate the following further. I found this information only at the Kingwood Democratic Party Site. It has been difficult to find out what is happening on this; I just thought you might have better luck. Thanks, Bev

Electronic Voting in Texas - Urgent

The Texas Secretary of State's office & the Attorney General's office are meeting behind closed doors to vote on certification of two electronic voting machines which have highly questionable reputations for reliability. The Voting Systems Examiners Board has been meeting since Wednesday and are expected to make their recommendation today (Friday, Jan 23) to the AG's office & the Secretary of State's office in support of both the ES&S and Diebold electronic voting systems.

Please send e-mail messages to each of the people below insisting that this decision must be made by a bipartisan group. Voter confidence in the reliability of our election system is too important to leave to partisan decision-makers. This certification procedure must be open and above-board.
----------
Please act by communicating the message to the Secretary of State and the Office of the Texas Attorney General that Texas citizens expect a fair and nonpartisan voting system which will ensure a strong democratic government, not undermine the integrity of our sacred principles. Please forward to concerned citizens.

*Texas** Action Alert!*
Contact information:

*Secretary of State, Geoffrey S. Connor and Staff**
*512.463.5770
gconnor@sos.state.tx.us
tsauceda@sos.state.tx.us
lsaenz@sos.state.tx.us
sriojas@sos.state.tx.us;

*Attorney General Greg Abbott and Staff
*512.463.2100

greg.abbott@oag.state.tx.us
barry.mcbee@oag.state.tx.us

Please contact the Texas Secretary of State and the Office of the Attorney General immediately pleading with them to halt the Certification Process of Diebold and ES&S voting systems and other electronic voting systems in until the public can be assured that:

1) The certification panelists are fair and nonpartisan; and in addition that the panelists have the highest qualifications;

2) The certification process has the highest and most rigorous standards in order to restore public confidence and support of our electoral process;

3) Elected officials will be barred from investment in electronic voting systems to avoid detrimental conflict of interest scenarios;

4) Texas will require a paper audit trail with electronic voting systems;

5) The Texas certification process will be transparent, and not conducted behind in closed doors.

Both electronic voting systems are highly controversial, not only at the local level, but also at the national and state levels. Lawsuits are currently underway because the Dallas County 2002 elections in which ES&S voting systems, in several reported instances, did not allow voters to select the candidate of their choice on the touch screen system. Instead the machines recorded a vote for the major opposition candidate. In addition, properly trained polling officials failed to remove the flawed equipment.

In addition, the CEO of the Diebold System has received national notoriety for strong partisan public comments. However, even more controversial is the issue of standards creating critical security concerns. Since both systems were certified in the past, and since highly respected computer scientists have spotlighted serious flaws in the Diebold system, the general public needs proof that the certification is meaningful and can be depended on to protect the very foundation of our democratic system of government. Nothing less will do.