FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2004
Faith-Based Paperless Voting on Trial
Growing Scrutiny Spurs Movement for a Transparent Elections
As voters go to the polls today to choose the Presidential nominees for the Democrat Party and to advise the Assembly on
the the future design of Georgia's flag, more and more voters and media professionals join those who are scrutinizing
Georgia's elections. This evening, ABC's Nightline will broadcast its report on the subject featuring interviews with
Secretary of State Cathy Cox and with Roxanne Jekot, a Cumming Georgia programmer and an activist for transparent
elections who reviewed the source code for Georgia's proprietary voting machine software which was left on an unsecured
ftp site by Diebold, Incorporated.
"Concern for the transparency and integrity of Georgia elections continues to grow," said Hugh Esco, chair of the Voter
Choice Coalition and political coordinator of the Georgia Green Party. The Green Party office phone started ringing
early this morning with reports of anomolies and problems from the Diebold machines. "We're pleased that this important
issue has finally begun to gain some of the attention it deserves."
"I look forward to the hearing on Thursday when we can point the legislators to the election laws which already require
voter verified paper ballots," said Ms. Jekot, referring to Thursday's 4:00 pm meeting of the Senate State and Local
Government Operations Committee to which SB-500 has been assigned. The Committee is expected to see demonstrations of
Diebold's election machines (used in Georgia) as well as those of a competitor's machines which already provides a paper
ballot for verification by the voter and the auditing of the electronic count. Paper Ballot activists hope the Committee
will be ready to take action on SB-500 once they've seen what is possible.
"Nightline" is carried by ABC affiliates across Georgia, starting at 11:30 pm.
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