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The Secure, Accurate and Fair Elections Act for California
Lift the Shroud of Secrecy from Electronic Voting Systems and Restore Confidence in Our Elections
By Paul Krekorian
Member
California State Assembly
On November 4, 2008, millions of Californians will go to their polling places to cast their votes using electronic voting machines. By the end of that evening, we will know who will take office as our next President. What we will not know that night – what we may never know with certainty – is whether our votes were in fact properly counted by those electronic voting machines.
After the debacle of the election of 2000 focused the nation’s attention on “hanging chads” in Florida, Congress passed the Help America Vote Act, which encouraged the wide use of electronic voting machines. Since then, corporate vendors of these machines, such as Diebold, have actively promoted them throughout the country. Many county registrars are investing heavily in this new technology in an effort to streamline the voting process, and to provide greater opportunity for some disabled citizens to vote independently.
Despite their effusive claims of security and accuracy, however, Diebold and most other manufacturers keep the actual workings of these machines a closely held secret. Although the public has an absolute right to observe every aspect of the process of counting paper ballots, the public is completely deprived of that right with regard to electronic voting.
That is why I’ve authored AB 852, the Secure, Accurate and Fair Elections (SAFE) Act of 2007. Simply stated, the SAFE Act would require public disclosure of the computer source code that runs our state’s voting machines. If a manufacturer refuses to disclose a voting system’s source code for public scrutiny, that system would not be certified for use in California elections – period. This important reform will ensure that voting rights advocates, computer scientists, the media, and any member of the public with an interest in technology and democracy, could analyze the source code and identify any potential errors or security risks.
The risks presented by the current certification process are not hypothetical. Secretary of State Debra Bowen has completed a laudable “top-to-bottom” review of voting systems in California, and that review has produced troubling results resulting in the decertification of several of California’s voting systems. For example, the review found that some voting machines in Los Angeles County contained software that was different than the software that the manufacturer had delivered to the Secretary of State for review and analysis. More importantly, every voting system has proven susceptible to attacks that would disable or fundamentally alter the software on the system. Voting system vendors have no incentive to fix errors in their code as long as the law favors their business interests over our public interest in a secure democratic process. SAFE will correct this deficiency in our democratic process.
President Kennedy once observed that “the very word ‘secrecy’ is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings. We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it.” Certainly any secrecy concerning the manner in which our votes are counted should be repugnant to us all. The operation of our voting systems must be open and accessible to scrutiny so that the veracity of these essential implements of our democracy is always beyond reproach.
If we don’t act now, the cost could be democracy itself!
To read more about AB 852.
Paul Krekorian was elected to the California State Assembly in 2006 to serve the communities of Burbank, Glendale, Los Feliz, North Hollywood, Silver Lake, Valley Glen, Van Nuys and Toluca Lake. Mr. Krekorian serves on two of the Assembly's most powerful committees, Appropriations and Rules. He also serves on the Utilities & Commerce, Judiciary, and Human Services committees, the Select Committee on Hate Crimes, and as Chair of the Select Committee on Preservation of California's Entertainment Industry.
Comments
Every Californian needs to click on the link in this article and send an e-mail to Assemblyman Leno and tell him that we are watching and to SUPPORT AB 852. This is the only way the will of the true Democracy Patriots will be know to our lawmakers. Democracy is not a Spectator Sport .
Posted by: L. Hamilton at August 16, 2007 09:30 AM
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