SACRAMENTO – Assemblymember Paul Krekorian, the author of the Secure, Accurate, Fair Elections (SAFE) Act of 2007, appeared before the Assembly Elections and Redistricting Committee to argue in support of the bill (AB 852) on April 17. This historic legislation, which will bring transparency to electronic voting, was approved by the committee by a vote of 5-2.
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AB 852 addresses the public’s very significant concerns about the sanctity of electronic voting, and especially the problems that result from secrecy surrounding the software used in electronic voting machines. Krekorian’s SAFE Act requires all voting systems vendors to publicly disclose the source code for the software in all machines certified by the Secretary of State for use in California after June 30, 2008.
"Voting system vendors claim they are entitled to conceal from the public the way votes are counted by their machines," said Krekorian, "but every step in the voting process must be transparent and beyond reproach. No commercial vendor of voting machines should be allowed to claim that the methods they employ to count our votes are a ‘trade secret.’ The public deserves to know exactly how their votes are being accepted, processed and counted by electronic voting machines. The SAFE Act will make sure that the voting process is open and fair, and it will restore the public’s confidence in the processing of their votes."
The bill’s next hurdle is the Assembly Appropriations Committee, where the merits of the bill will be addressed against its costs to California. Said Krekorian of the next step, "I’m confident that the members of the Appropriations Committee will agree that the costs of failing to protect our democratic process are far greater than the minor budgetary costs of AB 852. I urge those who share my concern for the sanctity of our elections process to contact the members of the Assembly Appropriations Committee and express their support for this common sense measure."
The Assembly Appropriations Committee can be reached at (916) 319-2081 or http://www.assembly.ca.gov/...