CA Secretary of State Releases DRE Design, Operation Standards

A bit late, but very welcome.

California Sec of State Kevin Shelley has produced Draft Standards for the design and operation of DREs. He has mandated requiring a AVVPAT, that is an Accessible Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail.

Draft Standards (7 pages, c'mon, you can read that.)


Paper Audit Trail for E-Voting Machines
Welcomes Public Comments on the Draft Proposal Through April 19, 2004



SACRAMENTO --- California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley announced
today that he is seeking public comment on draft standards for a verified
paper trail feature he has required for electronic voting machines.

In November 2003, Secretary of State Shelley announced that beginning
July 1, 2005, no county or city may purchase a touch screen voting system
that does not include an accessible voter verified paper audit trail
(AVVPAT). As of July 2006, all touch screen voting systems used in
California, regardless of when they were purchased, must have an AVVPAT
that can be used by all voters, including the visually impaired, to
verify that their voting preferences are accurately recorded.

^?These standards will be used by voting system manufacturers to develop
the next generation of California^?s electronic voting machines,^?
Shelley said. ^?In order to be certain that the systems developed ensure
the integrity of the voting process, I encourage the public to submit
their comments, on-line or in writing, for consideration in helping us to
adopt final standards.^?

The Secretary of State^?s staff developed the draft standards with input
from a working group of county elections officials, voting machine
manufacturers, advocacy groups, and others.

The six-page Draft Standards will be available for public comment for 30
days (through April 19 at the Secretary of State^?s website at
http://www.ss.ca.gov/elections/touchscreen.htm. Comments will be reviewed
and considered by the Secretary in consultation with the working group of
county elections officials.

During this 30-day period the public is encouraged to send written
comments by any of the following methods:
Write to: Secretary of State Kevin Shelley
Attn: AVVPAT Draft Standards
1500 11th Street, 5th Floor
Sacramento, CA 95814

Email: AVVPAT@ss.ca.gov

Fax: (916) 653-3214





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