MIAMI, Dec. 19 /PRNewswire/ An electronic voting system that goes beyond the growing demands of elections officials, elected representatives, computer scientists, voting rights advocates and the visually impaired, that electronic voting systems incorporate an accessible voter verified paper audit trail (AVVPAT), has been announced by a Florida inventor.

The California, Nevada and Washington Secretaries of State recently announced that they want to require an AVVPAT that can be used by all voters, including the visually impaired, to verify that their votes are accurately recorded. Legislative proposals have been introduced by Sen. Hilary Clinton, Sen. Bob Graham, Sen. Barbara Boxer, Rep. Rush Holt and his 96 bipartisan cosponsors calling for a "voter-verified paper trail." In her recent legislative proposal, Senator Hilary Clinton (D.-N.Y.) noted that, "The systems used by the people of the United States to exercise their constitutional right to vote should be as reliable as the machines people depend on to get their money."

David Biddulph of New Smyrna Beach, Florida, has announced that his electronic voting system will not only comply with the proposed legislation but will gain voters' confidence by empowering them with the ability to check the official vote tabulation database and make sure their vote was counted exactly as they intended. This unique process will work for sighted as well as vision-impaired voters.

Biddulph recently demonstrated his "Perfect Voting System," or PVS (www.PerfectVotingSystem.com), to attendees of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Symposium entitled "Building Trust and Confidence in Voting Systems." His patent-pending voting process, which is compatible as an add-on to existing electronic voting hardware, would provide voters, for the first time, a way to privately verify and audit their vote to make sure it was entered and counted exactly as intended.

The heart of the PVS is a computer-printed voter-verified paper ballot and receipt. The first step is for the voter to make his or her ions and then print out the ballot and receipt. Printed on the ballot and receipt is a secret password. If the voter finds a mistake or even changes his or her mind, the secret password could be used to amend the vote and produce a new ballot.

Once the voter is satisfied the computer printed ballot is accurate, he or she would deposit it in a secure container, sign and retain the receipt. To maintain the secrecy of the ballot, the receipt does not indicate how he or she voted and the ballot does not contain the voter's name.

Once the official vote tabulation database is complete, every voter using a PVS enabled system would have the right to audit his vote using the secret password printed on the ballot receipt. To limit "vote selling," the voter is required to have his identity and ballot receipt signature verified by an election official before privately auditing the official vote tabulation database. If his vote is missing or altered, he would have the right to require an official examination using his receipt password and matching it with the paper ballot containing the same password. If the electronic vote tabulation is in error, the paper ballot would be used as the official record for any recount.

Importantly, all the information would be represented in two bar codes, one imprinted on the ballot and another one, excluding the vote summary, printed on the receipt. These bar codes would be used to provide disabled voters accessibility through a Braille and/or audio output.

The Perfect Voting System would likely add about 2-5% to the cost of running an election. The licensing cost of the PVS is about $0.10 per vote cast. Biddulph asked, "Would it be worth another, say, $0.15-$0.20 per vote so that every citizen could be completely confident that their vote counted exactly as intended?"

     Contact: David Biddulph
              386-423-4744
              odemocracy@aol.com