Letter sent to State Administrator for the State Board of Elections by the Campaign for Verifiable Voting in Maryland

Ms. Linda H. Lamone
State Administrator
State Board of Elections
P.O. Box 6486
Annapolis, Maryland 21401-0486

October 3, 2003

Dear Administrator Lamone,

The Campaign for Verifiable Voting of Maryland would like to request that the Maryland contract for acquisition of electronic voting be amended to include purchase of a voter-verified paper audit trail capability, in compliance with the Maryland House Bill 1457 of 2001, the federal Help Americans Vote Act of 2002, and the recommendations of leading security experts.

We are very pleased to see the improvements in voting possible through electronic voting methods, but we remain committed to the traditional American standard and new legal standards of independent, observable, auditable vote records capable of supporting an independent recount and viable audit. Since computers are inherently at risk from programming error, equipment malfunction or malicious tampering, we believe that an electronic voting system cannot proceed without this capability. We wish to work with you to accomplish the best result of an easy, verifiable voting system in Maryland.

The U.S. Public Policy Committee of the Association for Computing Machinery has also expressed itself strongly on this requirement. We have attached their letter of support for a new federal legislation (H.R. 2239) clarifying this paper verification requirement.

Many of the most prominent Maryland computer deans and professors, our wonderful state resource of national expertise on the subject, have also endorsed this verification requirement for electronic voting.

While the Voting System Security Action Plan announced on September 23, 2003, will mitigate some risks identified in the SAIC Report, it will not reduce them to an acceptable level. The SAIC Report, itself, states on page 12:

"SAIC cannot guarantee or assure that risks, vulnerabilities and threats other than those addressed in this report will not occur nor can we guarantee or assure that, even if the State of Maryland implements the recommendations we have proposed, the State's business, facilities, computer networks and systems, software, computer hardware and other tangible equipment and assets will not be compromised, damaged or destroyed."

We would like to request a meeting with you at your earliest convenience.

We believe that preserving the highest integrity of our Maryland voting system is the foundation of our priceless heritage of voting, representative democracy, and freedom.

Sincerely,

The Coordinating Committee of CVVM