Report - Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and the Brennan Center for Justice
June 29, 2004
"To increase security and improve public confidence in the voting process, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) and the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law (BC) today released a new report providing specific recommendations for elections officials planning to use electronic voting machines in the 2004 elections.
The BC-LCCR recommendations are aimed at ensuring access and security in the voting systems used by 675 counties. Responding to new challenges presented by the widespread adoption of electronic voting machines, the report's recommendations have gained unprecedented support from civil rights organizations and computer scientists. In addition, DeForest Soaries, Jr., Chairman of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, has pledged to study how the recommendations can be incorporated in the Commission's work with local officials. Virtually all of the top computer scientists dedicated to improving the security of voting technology have endorsed the report, as have numerous civil rights groups. The recommendations also received strong endorsements from the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the National Committee on Voting Integrity. (See attachments for lists of endorsers and their statements of support.)
"The recommendations of this report are common sense solutions agreed upon by both the civil rights community and some of the nation's leading computer security experts," said Wade Henderson, Executive Director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the nation's oldest, largest, and most diverse civil and human rights coalition. "Assuring the security of everyone's votes is no less important than having the right to vote."
"Strengthening the security of electronic voting systems while preserving access to all voters is the goal of our report," said Deborah Goldberg, Democracy Program Director, Brennan Center for Justice. "We believe those jurisdictions that now use electronic voting systems have the time necessary to protect their systems, train their officials, and implement the recommended security procedures."
The new report, "Recommendations for Improving Reliability of Direct Recording Electronic Voting Systems," while neither an endorsement nor indictment of electronic voting systems, identifies specific actions that should be taken prior to the 2004 elections to increase security and improve public confidence."
