Statement at True Majority Press Event

State Capitol, Denver

2/26/04

by Joe Pezzillo

Citizens for Verifiable Voting is a Boulder, Colorado based ad hoc citizens group of several dozen computer developers, political and legal activists, researchers and concerned citizens who have been investigating the issue of electronic voting for months, and have presented our work to the local public, the Boulder County Commissioners, the regional media, the nation's leading academics, and recently even Colorado's State Legislature.

Our group succeeded in preventing Boulder County -- possibly Colorado's most technologically advanced region -- from purchasing any "DRE" Computer Voting Terminals and instead convinced them to use a 100% Paper Ballot system for the 2004 election to ensure maximum voter confidence and the most reliable results.

Our research has left us extremely concerned about Colorado's election laws, in particular the "method of recount" law, and the use of these Electronic Voting devices statewide in some of our most populous counties.

So, we're here as citizens to call on our leaders to deliver Trustworthy Elections to the people of Colorado for the 2004 elections.

Our group's extensive research has concluded that Trustworthy Elections are comprised of systems that are Secure, Reliable and Verifiable. Today, we believe that must include a full-text, physically marked, voter-verifibale Paper Ballot as the official record of the vote. We have done our research and also presented information on a category of devices known as "Vote Marking" machines that provide all the benefits of touch-screen voting to disabled voters, yet still result in a paper ballot being produced and cast that they can also verify using the same device.

We call on our Elected Representatives and Elections Officials to stand up and affirm their support for Trustworthy Elections, to stake their reputations and their careers on this issue, after all, what could be more important than Democracy in America? But what do we hear them say time and time again: "it's too much work", "it's too expensive", "the people are wrong, there are no problems," "we should wait and see"... shame on them. Are these the people we want guarding Our Democracy?

We'd like thank those Colorado State Legislators who have provided leadership on this issue and proven that this is fundamentally a non-partisan issue, including Representative Madden of Boulder and Representative Shultheis of Colorado Springs, and ask all Coloradans to join us in encouraging their efforts on this crucial matter.

But at the same time, we must urge the Citizens of Colorado to be vigilant on this issue, and to contact their elected representatives who continue to Oppose the Voters on this issue. To that end, we'd like to thank the more than two thousand members of True Majority who contacted the Secretary of State over the last week to express their concerns about electronic voting.

I would like to personally thank all of the many citizen volunteers who have joined together on this issue from around the state and across the nation, and given us hope that an active and engaged citizenry can make a difference on the issues that are important to all of us.

Trustworthy Elections are crucial for Our Democracy, please join us in demanding them as one of our basic rights as Americans.