Iowan Advises Florida Election Officials
Quad-City Times
Four
years after Florida was at the epicenter of the 2000 presidential
election upheaval, election personnel are working persistently on
problems associated with the state’s controversial $25 million
touch-screen, paperless voting system. Those involved include a
University of Iowa professor and a former Quad-City resident.
Douglas
W. Jones, an associate professor of computer science at Iowa, is a
consultant to the Miami-Dade County Elections Commission. Constance
Andrew Kaplan, a 1971 graduate of Augustana College in Rock Island, is
the county’s commissioner of elections, having been hired in July 2003.
Jones
has emerged as a national expert on computer election systems and
security, and he passionately believes in making the voting process as
fair, democratic and secure as possible.
…“I
want voting systems that you can audit with the same rigor as the books
of a corporation,” he said. “I want my vote counted as accurately as I
want my bank to count my dollars, with the same quality.”
(more)
And in a related story . . .
E-Voting on Trial in Maryland
Campaign for Verifiable Voting in Maryland
Dramatic Testimony Expected; Legitimacy of Election Hangs in Balance
Annapolis, Maryland
On
Wednesday, August 25th, for the first time in the new technology's
turbulent history, paperless electronic voting will be on trial for
three days in the state capital. Progressing further than any
other electronic voting suit in the nation, the suit Linda Schade et
al. vs. Linda Lamone et al. calls into question the legality of
paperless voting machines under Maryland law, which requires paper
ballots and the ability to conduct a recount.
Among
the witnesses: Embattled Elections Chief Linda Lamone will be forced to
testify under oath as to why the State Board of Elections purchased the
machines against expert advice and when significant knowledge of the
voting system's security vulnerabilites were evident.
Computer
security experts who authored the technical reports Lamone has taken
refuge in will testify under oath re-stating their devastating
critiques of Maryland's Diebold machines.
A
Montgomery County election judge will testify under oath about a
hair-raising breakdown of Diebold voting machines in Maryland's March
2004 primary election – and tell how the state board harassed her for
refusing to cover it up.
“Once
the facts are known, the court will understand why the public does not
want to use these machines in November, said Linda Schade, plaintiff
and Co-Founder of TrueVoteMD.org. “A democracy cannot function
without the confidence of its citizens. I hope the court
understands this and acts accordingly.”
Campaign for Verifiable Voting in Maryland
www.TrueVoteMD.org
Blog For Iowa 
A few comments before I have to get into cleaning up my house for my big Jim Hightower party on Friday:
Doug Jones is awesome. I heard him sometime back on NPR in Iowa City talking about voting machines. He is a wonderful resource for us in Iowa.
Democracy for Iowa has now coordinated delivery of “Myth Breakers for Election officials” to all 99 Iowa Counties, as well as to Chet Culver's office. As far as I can tell, we are the only DFA group to have undertaken such an ambitious project to ensure fair elections in their state. Check out the first website to see us listed as the contact group in Iowa. The second website is my personal favorite. Look at all little gold stars we got! LOL
List of organizations in each state
http://www.votersunite.org/info/groups.asp
Status of Iowa
http://www.votersunite.org/takeaction/kickoff-participantsIA.asp
Alta Price
altaprice@mailblocks.com
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And many thanks to Alta for helping to coordinate the “Myth Breakers for Election Officials” project here in Iowa. That document has been very helpful to me with my campaign for county auditor.
Also Doug Jones is a wonderful resource, he has answered the questions I had about the current touchscreen machines that are in use in my county.
The gold stars show that WE ARE making a difference all over Iowa!
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