Washblog || Message on Election System Purchase From Reverend DeForest Soaries Jr. to King County Council

Message on Election System Purchase From Reverend DeForest Soaries Jr. to King County Council

By noemie maxwell
Mon Oct 01, 2007 at 04:20:55 AM PST
Section: King County Topic: Election Integrity

In a 9/28/07 email, Reverend DeForest Soaries Jr. approved for publication on Washblog the statement that appears below.

A Message to the King County Council from Reverend DeForest Soaries, Jr.

Dear King County Council Members:
"I was pleased to convene a group of election officials to evaluate the proposition that vote-by-mail required an upgrade to the election technology used in King County. The assembled team includes people with the right background to evaluate the need for an upgrade. To be very clear, our team was unanimous: There is no need to upgrade.

"When election officials were interviewed about the risks associated with combination of moving to vote-by-mail, moving to a new, untried, tabulation system, no one thought it was a wise choice to do all of these in the run up to a presidential election. Not one election official was comfortable with this direction.

"I urge you to heed the warning from these election officials: There is no upside, no advantage, to moving ahead with acquisition a new tabulation system and the risks are considerable."

Reverend Soaries is Senior Pastor, First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens, Somerset, New Jersey; Former Secretary of State of the state of New Jersey; former chairman of the Federal Election Assistance Commission; and the convener of the panel of elections officials producing the 2007 Report commissioned by the King County Council: Peer Security Review of the Ballot Tracking and Accountability Business Case.

Virtually every expert and citizen reviewing this business case recommended against it, including the King County Council itself. However, it appears that King County Elections may forge on ahead with the plan anyway. Other recommendations against the purchase of VoteHere's MiBT: Expert Review; King County Citizen Election Oversight Committee Review; King County Council Review.

An important historical note is that Reverend Soaries resigned from the Federal Elections Assistance commission in 2005, later explaining that the White House and Congress failed to supply the needed resources for the commission to meet its HAVA mandate of creating Electronic Voting System standards that would protect the American right to vote. (As reported on the Brad Blog 10/17/06.)

< King County Elections Forges Ahead with Election Plan Against Multiple Recommendations | Green Everett Sustainable Energy Fair >

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