Date: Wednesday, May 5, 2004 5:00 pm
Event: National Committee on Voting Integrity Press Conference
Conference call at 1 512 225 3050, passcode 65889#
Contact: Lillie Coney, NCVI 1 202 483 1140 x 111

PRESS RELEASE
National Committee on Voting Integrity to Discuss
U.S. Election Commission's First Public Hearing

WASHINGTON, DC - The National Committee on Voting Integrity (NCVI) will hold a press conference on Wednesday, May 5 to discuss the first hearing of the Election Assistance Commission. The Commission is reviewing the "Use, Security, and Reliability of Electronic Voting Systems." Unfortunately, one of the most important aspects of securing electronic voting systems is missing from this list—overall system integrity.

The NCVI said in a written statement the Commission must do more to ensure that the technical input accurately reflects the growing skepticism of the computer community about the reliability of ATM-style voting machine. Only one of the four members of the panel, Dr. Aviel Rubin, a member of the NCVI, represents the view of most computer security experts that the Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) machines used in the 2004 primary elections should not be used without a better auditing mechanism, such as a voter verified paper ballot (VVPB).

NCVI further stated that a vast majority of computer scientist and computer security experts believe that the current DRE technology is not secure. NCVI recommends the adoption of VVPB to ensure that each vote cast is accurately counted in November's election.

Over the last few years, many flaws and fundamental limitations have been reported in DRE voting machines. These machines, like other computers, are vulnerable to programmer error, equipment malfunction, and malicious tampering among other problems. Most recently, the state of California has banned the use of all DRE voting machines that do not provide a VVPB in

November's General Election, and Ireland has abandoned its plans for electronic voting.
It the position of the NCVI that all voting technology put before the public must demonstrably perform reliably from the start of the election to the finish of the final vote tally, including any possible audits or recounts.

The press conference will be accessible via conference call at 1 512 225 3050.

The National Committee on Voter Integrity (NCVI) was established to promote voter-verified balloting and to preserve privacy protections for elections in the United States. The Committee brings together experts on voting issues from across the country.

Speaking at the press conference will be leading experts, including: Peter Neumann and Barbara Simons, Stan Klein, Vincent J. Lipsio, Rebecca Mercuri, and Doug Jones.

The National Committee is a non-partisan organization made up of leading technical experts, lawyers, journalists, and citizens. NCVI maintains a web site at http://www.votingintegrity.org.

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