"Utah Count Votes" Takes Issue with Utah League of Women Voters' Position on Electronic Voting

"Utah Count Votes" takes issue with the League of Women Voters' position on Utah's voting equipment purchase as expressed by LWV UT Executive Director Sandy Peck in a letter to Utah League members. ( see http://utahcountvotes.org/response_to_lwvut.pdf )

Having voting machine vendors tell Utah what to look for when purchasing voting equipment is a downright dangerous way to do purchasing. Yet this is what Sandy Peck, Executive Director of the Utah League of Women Voters describes on pp 8-11 in

http://utahcountvotes.org/LWVU_Fall_Voter_20041.pdf (The LWVUT removed the document from their own site on Monday October 4, 2004).

The Utah state election plan committee made a mistake when it required direct recording electronic (DRE) voting machines for Utah, because that meant that other voting systems that might better meet Utahs needs and still meet requirements for voters with disabilities to vote in private, were excluded from consideration. DRE voting machines are under fire in other states.

Asking county clerks to select electronic voting equipment is like asking nurses to select medical diagnostic equipment rather than doctors or asking flight attendants to select the operating system for 747 jet computers rather than engineers.

Utah Count Votes urges the League to demand that the Utah Election Office heed the advice of Utahs computer scientists outlined in an online press release by fifteen computer scientists and voting experts: http://utahcountvotes.org/Voting_systems.pdf

The current generation of electronic voting machines are not secure, and do not provide voters with a way to know that their votes are being tabulated correctly because they do not provide a mechanism for effective recounts when errors arise. As such, they represent an unacceptable technical risk.

Utah has a window of opportunity to lead America to preserve honest accurate democratic elections. (see http://utahcountvotes.org/UVES_concept.pdf )

Please read the full text of Utah Count Votes' online response to the League of Women Voters here http://utahcountvotes.org/response_to_lwvut.pdf