Green Party of Iowa
greens.org/iowa/
Wendy Barth for Governor
www.votewendy.org
October 31, 2006
Released October 27
CEDAR RAPIDS - Iowa Green Party gubernatorial candidate Wendy Barth
offered a response today to comments from Linn County Auditor Linda
Langenberg. In a recent news article Langenberg referred to those who
raise concerns about the accuracy of electronic voting machines as "terrorists."
"As a career software engineer, I understand just how easily errors in
programming code can be overlooked," Barth responded, "and how difficult
it can be to thoroughly test a piece of software this complex. In addition, it has been
demonstrated by several testing groups that these machines can be compromised rather easily. Given this the concerns of
the public are legitimate, and are deserving of consideration by the Auditor. I understand that Ms. Langenberg feels she
deserves to be trusted, but the voting public deserve more reassurance than a simple
'trust me.'"
Barth's running mate, Richard Johnson, added, "Having spent the last
fifteen years of my career as a network engineer I can assure you that
the risk of intrusion into these computers is real. There are documented instances where the
computers controlling these voting machines have not only been "hacked," to use the popular term, but where
results have been changed without the operators being able to detect it. I cannot understand someone dismissing these threats so
lightly."
Recent testing by Princeton University (http://itpolicy.princeton.edu/voting)
has demonstrated how vulnerable these computers are, and how easily intrusion into these computers can
be hidden. There have also been numerous reports of errors from these
voting machines reported in Ohio, Florida, and Georgia. A number of states and counties are requiring that
the machines have a verifiable paper trail that includes a receipt for the voter and a printed
verification report.
At a meeting of supporters in Cedar Rapids earlier today, Barth
announced, "Our campaign is calling for an independent audit of the code
used to program these machines by qualified software engineers, as well
as a real paper trail with receipt that can be verified by the voter as
they cast their ballot. Every electronic cash register in the state prints receipts, so why
not our voting machines? It is inexcusable that the gambling equipment in our casinos, which must pass regular
independent inspection, is subjected to a higher level of scrutiny than
our voting machines."
For more information on the voting machine problems here in Iowa and
throughout the nation go to the following websites: