ITAA Says eVoting Critics Play Games with Democracy

ARLINGTON, Va.(BUSINESS WIRE)Sept. 22, 2004The Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) today lambasted a so-called "technical" demo of electronic voting produced by a group of self-styled e-voting activists. ITAA called the demonstration an out of context, out of control media event that put the sponsors' need for public attention far ahead of voter confidence in the democratic process.

"The hubris of this group is breath-taking," said ITAA President Harris N. Miller. "To stage this kind of irresponsible event six weeks before the national election goes beyond anything I have seen in 30 years of public policy advocacy. None of the scenarios presented today has the slightest resemblance to how elections are actually conducted, results tabulated or electronic voting machines used."

"That's too bad for people trying to exploit this issue to sell books or collect large financial settlements," Miller continued, "but the reality of the situation is that electronic voting is part of a process involving people and technology-a process with numerous checks and balances. E-voting systems are secure and accurate. They feature multiple capabilities for auditing and redundancies for data capture. Security is of paramount importance to election systems vendors and election officials alike. Electronic voting machines have been used in the U.S. for 20 years, and there has not been one verified case of election system tampering. E-voting technology eliminates over votes and dramatically reduces under votes. And it enfranchises hundreds of thousands of voters, including the physically disabled and those with limited English language skills."

Unfortunately, critics blame electronic voting machines for problems that have little or nothing to do with the machines themselves. Accepting these charges on their face value and bolstering the perception that there is something inherently wrong with electronic voting machines undermines public confidence in the election system, makes lower voter turnouts more likely, and increases the odds that jurisdictions will keep older voting systems like punch cards in place, regardless of their inadequate performance.

ITAA programs include the Election Technology Council (ETC), a group of election systems solution vendors dedicated to the use of innovative technology to conduct accurate and secure elections. Visit the ETC website at http://www.electiontech.org.

The Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) provides global public policy, business networking, and national leadership to promote the continued rapid growth of the IT industry. ITAA consists of over 350 corporate members throughout the U.S.. The Association plays the leading role in issues of IT industry concern including information security, taxes and finance policy, digital intellectual property protection, telecommunications competition, workforce and education, immigration, online privacy and consumer protection, government IT procurement, human resources and e-commerce policy. ITAA members range from the smallest IT start-ups to industry leaders in the Internet, software, IT services, ASP, digital content, systems integration, telecommunications, and enterprise solution fields. For more information visit www.itaa.org http://www.itaa.org/. ITAA is secretariat of the World Information Technology and Services Alliance, consisting of 60 IT trade associations around the world.