Election Integrity Events in the Lone Star Sate

Contact: Abbe Waldman DeLozier 512/736-5802
Vickie Karp 512/775-3737

TECHNOLOGY SECURITY EXPERT CONCURS
ELECTRONIC VOTING "UNSAFE FOR VOTERS"
plus
TEXAS HAND-COUNTED PAPER BALLOT BILL OF 2007, HB 3894
INTRODUCED BY REP. LON BURNAM

FOUR EVENTS

Wednesday, April 4th, 2pm CST, Austin Capitol, Rm. E2.028, Texas House Committee on Elections hearing:

Bruce O’Dell, an award-winning software designer specializing in software security for American Express, General Motors, and other Fortune 100 companies, will deliver a 20 minute presentation to the Committee on why electronic voting is neither secure nor reliable and should be banned for use in Texas.

Thursday, April 5th, Austin Capitol, Rm E2.002, Legislative Conference Room, 11:15 am CST: Press Conference:

Rep Lon Burnam, Texas House District 90, will make the announcement of new HB 3894, mandating paper ballots, hand-counted in public view with citizen oversight, with totals posted at the precinct level.

David Rogers, assistant general counsel of the Texas Legal Foundation and former campaign manager for Republican Texas Supreme Court Justice Candidate Steve Smith, will make a statement about his experience in the Texas 2006 primary regarding e-voting disaster and huge cost of recounts that do not even reflect voter intent. Rogers is a longtime conservative Republican activist.

Bruce O’Dell, (mentioned above), will give a statement about why electronic voting is unsafe and can not technically be made "easier, faster, nor secure…"

Sputnik, Founder and State Chairman of the Texas Motorcycle Bikers’ Association, member of the National Legislation Task Force and a member of the Texas Chapter of the Lawmakers Club. Sputnik will speak in support of HB 3894.

Vickie Karp, PR Director, Vote Rescue and Board Member, Black Box Voting, will address why "voter verifiable paper audit trails" won’t solve e-voting fraud, and introduce VoteRescue’s Cost Analysis of E-Voting Elections vs. Hand-Counted Paper Ballots. Joni Ashbrook of VoteRescue will present a short summary of the astronomical costs of electronically held elections as reported through interviews with Texas county election officials.

Karen Renick, Founder and Director of VoteRescue, Austin election integrity group supporting HB 3894, will introduce the "Vote-PAD", the non-electronic voting system which allows the disabled to vote without assistance, fulfilling the mandate of the Help America Vote Act of 2002.

Thursday, April 5th, Austin Capitol, Rm. E2.002, Legislative Conference Room, Noon CST – 1:30 pm:

A video presentation of a hacking of real Diebold electronic voting equipment (a vendor used in Texas), and a presentation by Bruce O’Dell on the acute security issues with electronic voting in Texas. Lunch, plus three repeat presentations: Noon – 12:30pm; 12:30pm – 1pm; and 1pm – 1:30 pm. All Texas Representatives, Senators, and their Legislative Staff have been personally invited. The media is welcome to attend.

Thursday, April 5th, First Unitarian Universalist Church, 4700 Grover, Austin, Texas, 7-10 pm:

Showing of the startling and revealing HBO documentary, "Hacking Democracy", featuring the electronic vote fraud research of Bev Harris of Black Box Voting and ending with the hacking of real Diebold electronic Optical Scan voting equipment in a sanctioned setting in Leon County, Florida under direct supervision of the Superviser of Elections, Ion Sancho on certified election equipment; and presentation and follow up explanation by Bruce O’Dell. Media welcome.

Undervote Rate Plummets in Minority Precincts When Paper Ballot Used

For Immediate Release

Contacts:
Ellen Theisen Theron Horton
360-437-9922 505-751-4106
ellen@vote-pad.us theronhorton@mac.com

*Undervote Rate Plummets in Minority Precincts
After New Mexico Changes to All Paper Ballots*

A new report, based on official 2004 and 2006 New Mexico election data, shows a dramatic difference in undervotes in Native American and Hispanic precincts, depending on whether they voted on paper ballots or on Direct Record Electronic (DRE - often known as touch screen) voting machines.

The report explains: "Undervotes represent ballots on which no vote was registered for a specific contest. Undervote rates higher than 0.5% in the major contest on a ballot, especially in presidential elections, suggest that votes may not have been counted, either through a mistake of the voter or a mistake in tabulation."

The report shows that in predominantly Native American and predominantly Hispanic precincts, undervote rates were abnormally high (7.61% and 6.33% respectively) in the 2004 presidential race, when the votes were cast on DREs.

In 2006, after the state changed to all optically scanned paper ballots, the undervote rates for Governor in those same precincts plummeted by 85% in Native American areas and by 69% in predominantly Hispanic precincts.

In Anglo precincts, undervote rates of ballots cast on DREs were about the same level as the rates for paper ballots - 2.22% and 1.75% respectively.

"We were looking for any impact the change to paper ballots may have had on New Mexico's historically high undervote rate. When we found the dramatic drop in Native American precincts, we were shocked," said Theron Horton, Project Manager for Election Defense Alliance. "Something was going on with the DREs in those precincts in 2004."

"When Warren Stewart, Policy Director of VoteTrustUSA, and I did the analysis of New Mexico's 2004 vote data two years ago, we found high undervote rates in the minority precincts," said Ellen Theisen, President of Vote-PAD, Inc. and former Executive Director of VotersUnite.Org. "But we didn't do a complete comparison of paper ballot undervotes to the DRE undervotes in that election. When I heard of Theron's work, I performed the comparison, and found that it's the paper ballots that made the difference in the minority precincts."

Read the two-page report here: (http://www.votersunite.org/info/NM_UVbyBallotTypeandEthnicity.pdf)

Download the data here: (http://www.votersunite.org/info/2006NMSelectedData.xls.)