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May
30, 2003
The Honorable Rush Holt
1019 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Congressman Holt,
As the Co-Chairs of USACM, the U.S. Public Policy Committee
of the Association for Computing Machinery, we are writing
to commend you for your efforts to address the serious
concerns raised by a broad coalition of computer scientists
regarding the security and trustworthiness of electronic
voting systems.
Computers are inherently subject
to programming error, equipment malfunction, and malicious
tampering. If we are to ensure fair and honest elections,
and retain voter confidence in our democratic process,
we need to ensure that there are no questions of any
such errors or tampering with voting equipment. Therefore,
it is crucial that any computerized voting system
provide a voter-verifiable audit trail: there should
be an anonymous record of each vote that can be can
be checked for accuracy by the voter when the vote
is cast, and is difficult or impossible to alter after
the vote is cast.
The well-intentioned but premature
establishment of a vulnerable system for voting could
result in unintended consequences undermining the
confidence, integrity and accuracy of the electoral
process. Therefore, USACM continues to recommend that
a voter-verifiable audit trail be one of the essential
requirements for deployment of new voting systems. We are pleased that H.R. 2239, the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility
Act of 2003, recognizes our concerns by requiring
voting systems to generate a physical paper trail
that voters can personally verify at the time of voting.
Requiring voter-verified audit trails to be
included in electronic voting systems is welcomed
step towards preserving the integrity of future elections.
USACM's mission is to provide non-partisan,
technology-based input to policy-makers on issues
of U.S. public policy. Please contact the ACM Office of Public Policy
Office at (202) 478-6312 if we can provide input on
any computing-related issue.
Sincerely,
Barbara Simons, Ph.D.
Eugene H. Spafford, Ph.D
Co-Chairs
U.S. ACM Public Policy Committee
Association for Computing Machinery
About USACM:
USACM is the U.S. Public
Policy Committee of the Association for Computing
Machinery (ACM). ACM is the leading nonprofit membership
organization of computer scientists and information
technology professionals dedicated to advancing the
art, science, engineering and application of information
technology. Since 1947, ACM has been a pioneering
force in fostering the open interchange of information
and promoting both technical and ethical excellence
in computing. Over 70,000 computer scientists and
information technology professionals from around the
world are members of ACM.
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