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	LETTER TO EDITOR: ELECTRONIC VOTING - THE FACTS

SHERIFF'S RESPONSE LETTER TO THE DEKALB CHAMPION EDITOR:THE FACTS ABOUT ELECTRONIC VOTING IN GEORGIA Dear Editor: A recent article in The Champion (“McKinney calls for Georgia to discontinue use of Diebold electronic voting machines...” – Jan. 6, 2006) unfortunately omitted important facts regarding the benefits of Georgia’s electronic voting system, while including inaccurate information attacking the system and, in effect, questioning Secretary of State Cathy Cox’s leadership in moving Georgia to a national leader in voting accuracy. It is easy today to forget what a disaster our elections systems were just five years ago. National studies showed that in the 2000 presidential election Georgia had the second worst voting error rate in the nation. Our 3.5-percent error rate – far worse than Florida’s, by the way -- meant that some 94,000 Georgians visited the polls but had no vote recorded in the most important race on the ballot. And the problems were even worse in DeKalb and in predominately African-American precincts across our state. Precinct studies showed that error rates in some African-American precincts topped 10 percent. In DeKalb the average error rate in predominantly African-American precincts was 7.6 percent, while in white precincts that rate was only 0.41 percent. It was just that sort of glaring inequality that prompted the ACLU to sue the state, demanding that it throw out its discriminatory punch cards and other antiquated voting systems. But Cathy Cox did not wait for the courts to act or for Congress to tackle the problem. Instead, she worked closely with Governor Roy Barnes to develop a bipartisan plan, supported nearly unanimously by the General Assembly, to scrap our inaccurate and outdated equipment and move Georgia into the modern era of elections. With Governor Barnes’ support, she secured the millions of federal dollars needed to deploy a much more accurate voting system -- so that burden would not be placed on county taxpayers. The improvement in Georgia’s voting system was evident in the 2004 presidential election. According to an MIT study, Georgia moved from second worst to second best in the nation in voting system accuracy. MIT researchers called it a “stunning improvement.” Further, an analysis of precinct results showed that the unequal treatment of communities was eliminated, as well. In DeKalb, the error rate in African-American precincts plummeted from nearly 8 percent in 2000 to only 0.4 percent in 2004. With punch cards in 2000 there were 8,372 blank presidential ballots in DeKalb alone. In 2004 that number dropped to fewer than 800 – even though our voter turnout was much higher. Much is made of the 2002 results in Georgia, when Governor Barnes, who played a leading role in our election transformation, lost his bid for reelection. That unexpected defeat led some to think that the new system somehow played a role in his loss and that of other Democrats. In fact, collectively statewide Democratic candidates actually received more votes than did Republicans that year. In that supposedly tainted election we reelected not only Lt. Governor Taylor, but also Secretary Cox, Commissioner Tommy Irvin, Attorney General Thurbert Baker and Commissioner Michael Thurmond by very substantial margins. Think about it. Would a system that was somehow skewed to defeat Democrats have returned these important leaders to office, elected five Democrats to Congress and hundreds of other Democrats at the county and district level? Make no mistake, statements by the CEO of our election equipment provider supporting the reelection of President Bush definitely caught my attention. No executive involved in that industry, where public confidence is so important, should take sides in any election. However, in Georgia, the integrity of our voting system does not depend on who is sitting in the executive suite of a Fortune 500 company. Instead, Secretary Cox has established equipment testing and security safeguards, and equipment is tested before PAGE 2: Letter: Georgia’s Electronic Voting System each election. The Center for Election Systems at Kennesaw State University runs Georgia’s security program. The center’s experts in computer security, many of whom have advanced degrees in computer science, perform the testing, auditing and quality assurance necessary to ensure that our election system is accurate and protected against attack. With the center’s involvement, Secretary Cox’s Elections Division is working diligently to add a paper receipt that the voter can review while voting. When implemented, those paper printouts will be added to those already created from each machine when the polls are closed on election day. (Many are not aware that each Georgia voting terminal already prints an auditable paper tally of votes cast – and those tally tapes are posted at the precinct after the polls close election night.) It is the American way to ask tough and probing questions about our government and the actions of our leaders. Every vote cast by every citizen is precious, and we should do everything in our power to make sure that those ballots are accurately counted and safeguarded. But as we debate these issues, let’s separate misconceptions from actualities. And as we work together to improve elections even further, let’s not ignore the huge strides Georgia has already taken to make elections more accurate and equitable for all our citizens. Sincerely, Thomas E. Brown

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