GA Greens Welcome Investigation of Computerized Voting
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 21st, 2003
Georgia Greens Welcome Investigation of Computerized Voting
Call for Open Source Software and Voter Inspected Paper Ballots
"We welcome Governor Perdue's call for an investigation of the state's computerized election machinery," said Badili
Jones, Co-Chair of the Georgia Green Party and of the Green Party of the United States. The Georgia Party today
announced its endorsement for passage of Senator Nadine Thomas' SB-340 which would restore integrity to Georgia's
elections.
Secretary Cox has scheduled a series of briefings at Governor Perdue's request to re-examine the state's new
computerized voting machines. The first one is for members of the Georgia Congressional Delegation and will be held at
10:00 am on Friday, August 22nd, 2003 at the Center for Voting Systems at Kennesaw State University.
In recent actions the Georgia Green Party endorsed not only the Thomas bill in the Georgia Senate, but also HR-2239 by
Rep. Holt in the U.S. Congress as well as the sign-on resolution being circulated by Dr. David Dill, founder of
VerifiedVoting.org and a political scientist with Stanford University.
"We regret that Secretary Cox could not hear our earlier appeals on this matter," said Hugh Esco, the Party's political
coordinator and the Chair of the Voter Choice Coalition, a multi-partisan advocacy group first organized in 1999 to push
for open access to the ballot. In 2003, the Coalition expanded its agenda to call for proportional representation and an
audit-able computerized voting system.
"We hear from a lot of folks who question whether voting can make a difference. It is vital that we protect the
integrity of the elections which give legitimacy to our self-governmence," said Esco. "It is a shame that an on-air
phone call from Illinois has more leverage with our elected officials than do Georgia citizens."
At its May 17th, 2003 Annual Convention in Pooler Georgia, the Georgia Green Party adopted amendments to its Platform,
including the following provision:
We advocate that the new electronic voting machines implemented during the 2002 election cycle be retrofitted with
printers to provide for a voter-inspected paper trail, which will be collected and tabulated to confirm the validity of
preliminary results generated electronically. We insist that the election machinery be driven by open source and peer
reviewed software, open to inspection by any voter.
In other positions adopted as a part of the Party Platform by earlier Conventions, the Georgia Green Party says that
creating true democracy in Georgia will also require open access to the ballot, democratically and publicly financed
election campaigns and the use of proportional representation to ensure that elected officials serving in the executive
enjoy majority support and that deliberative bodies represent the entire public discourse in proportion to the support
each political perspective enjoys among the electorate.
Secretary Cox is scheduled to brief members of the Georgia Congressional Delegation at 10:00 am, Friday, August 22nd,
2003 at the Center for Voting Systems at Kennesaw State University. Subsequent Friday morning events are now being
planned for members of the Georgia General Assembly, and for members of the public.
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