US State News, February 15, 2006

WHO:
Sen. Debra Bowen (D Redondo Beach), Chairwoman of the Senate Elections, Reapportionment & Constitutional Amendments Committee

WHAT:
The Senate Elections, Reapportionment & Constitutional Amendments Committee will examine how voting equipment is tested and certified for use in California.

WHEN:
Thursday, February 16, 2006, at 1:00 p.m.

WHERE:
Menlo Park City Council Chambers, 801 Laurel Street, Menlo Park. The hearing won't be televised and at this moment we're still working on a way for people to be able to listen to it over the Internet.

WHY:
The voting machines that Californians rely on to accurately record their votes are certified at the federal level by the one of the private Independent Testing Authorities (ITAs) and by the Secretary of State. However, that process has been criticized by some as being both incomplete and biased in favor of the voting machine vendors. The hearing is designed to look at those criticisms and, until the voting machine vendors, the ITAs, and the Secretary of State refused to appear, hear from those who think the current process is appropriate.

"There have been dozens, if not hundreds, of problems with electronic voting machines that have failed to record people's votes accurately, which begs the question of how these machines are certified for use in the first place," said Bowen."The refusal of the ITAs and the voting machine vendors to show up at a Senate hearing to talk about the certification issues is unacceptable and it should be unacceptable to anyone who wants to ensure California has voting systems that are secure, reliable, and accurately tally people's votes. I'm not sure what steps I'll need to take to get the vendors, the ITAs, and the Secretary to appear before the committee, but I'm certainly looking at my options."

The refusal by the voting machine vendors to show up marks the second straight week they have rebuffed the committee's request to appear before it. Last week, they rejected a request from the committee to appear to discuss the concept of using open source software in California's voting machines.

Witnesses scheduled to testify before the committee include:

* Aviel Rubin, Professor of Computer Science and Technical Director, Information Security Institute, Johns Hopkins University

* Dan Wallach, Professor of Computer Science, Rice University

* David Dill, Professor of Computer Science, Stanford University Founder of the Verified Voting Foundation and VerifiedVoting.org

* Peter Neumann, Principal Scientist Computer Science Lab, SRI International

* Sonia Arrison, Director, Technology Studies, Pacific Research Institute

* Freddie Oakley, Yolo County Clerk Recorder

* Warren Slocum, San Mateo County Assessor County Clerk Recorder.