Sequoia Voting Systems, one of the nation's largest suppliers of election equipment and services, announced today that it will formally seek federal certification of its unique voter verifiable paper record printer as an optional component to the company's AVC Edge(R) touch screen voting system. The new product upgrade will be submitted for federal testing in the first quarter of 2004.

"Our customers routinely praise our system's ease of use for voters, poll workers and election officials," said Sequoia President Tracey Graham. "Voting on the Sequoia touch screens will remain as easy as ever, but with this additional feature, voters will have the added convenience of viewing a paper record of their ions before they leave the polls.

"While our existing electronic voting equipment already allows the printing of ballots for recount and audit purposes, this new feature will allow each voter to confirm their ions both electronically and on paper," noted Graham.

The printer will be mounted beside the touch screen and will display the voter's ions behind glass so voters will not be able to physically handle, remove or alter the paper. After the voter confirms that the ions on the paper are correct, they will then officially submit their ballot via the touch screen. After the ballot is cast, the paper record is scrolled inside the unit to maintain a voter verified paper audit trail.

The additional paper audit trail will supplement existing features such as the system's redundantly stored electronic ballot images and unalterable electronic audit logs to provide multiple methods of verifying the accuracy of an election.

The new feature is optional and is not required to ensure the integrity of electronic ballots. The enhanced printer option can be added to any existing or new Sequoia AVC Edge touch screen voting units in the market. The option can be implemented at the time of purchase or can be added at a later date if state or local election requirements change.

Electronic voting systems are closely regulated by federal and state officials. Both the hardware and software of electronic voting systems must be tested against more than 500 pages of standards and requirements by federally sanctioned independent testing authorities.

Sequoia's touch screen voting units were first used on a countywide basis for the historic 2000 presidential elections conducted by Riverside County, Calif. On Oct. 7, 2003, the system was deployed ahead of schedule in Shasta County, Calif., so voters there could take advantage of the new technology during the complex California Gubernatorial Recall election.

Sequoia Voting Systems provides election services in more than thirty-five states and has more than 48,000 electronic voting machines deployed across the nation. Sequoia has been providing election services for more than a century and electronic voting machines for 25 years. The touch screen version of Sequoia's electronic voting equipment has been available since 1999.

Sequoia is based in Oakland, Calif., with offices in Colorado, Florida and New York. Sequoia has led the election services industry by providing direct recording electronic voting systems for the last twenty-five years. Sequoia is a subsidiary of De La Rue, PLC, a global leader in providing tamperproof government documents and secure cash handling and processing technologies.