From Voter News email Vote USA

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FROM AROUND THE STATES
ARIZONA: COMPUTER SCIENTIST RELEASES REPORT ON MARICOPA
COUNTY VOTING MACHINE PROBLEMS
by Warren Stewart, Director of Legislative Issues and Policy,
VoteTrustUSA ( http://www.votetrustusa.org ) - January 12,
2006
Jones Report Questions the Quality of State and Federal Oversight of
Voting Technology

, a highly respected computer scientist who has written extensively
on the history and technology of voting, has released a report
detailing the results of his investigation of voting machine problems
in Maricopa County Arizona (Phoenix) (
http://www.votetrustusa.org/pdfs/Arizona_Folder/ArizonaDist20.pdf ).
Dr. Jones, a professor at the University of Iowa, was invited on
December 20, 2005 to perform extensive testing on the county's 8
Optech 4C vote tabulating machines. These machines are used to
scan absentee ballots, which make up approximately half of all
ballots cast in a typical election in Maricopa County.

The circumstances surrounding the request for Dr. Jones' report
have created some controversy in Arizona. Sen. Jack Harper
(R-Surprise) is investigating voting irregularities in the 2004
District 20 primary (
../../../index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=459&Itemid=113 ).
Harper initially requested that the State Senate to fund the
report, but when Senate President Ken Bennett denied his request,
Harper arranged to fund the investigation privately by the Phoenix
New Times. The newspaper agreed to pay $3,000 for Jones to examine
voting machines used in the 2004 District 20 primary race and Jones,
was allowed to inspect the machines last month as a result of
Harper's subpoenas.

Jones' report brings into question the quality of state and Federal
oversight of our voting technology. The current system of Voluntary
Federal Voting System Standards does not address these issues, and
the current Federal recommendations for best practices in
pre-election testing ignore these issues. Jones suggests that only
by hand examination of how actual voters mark their ballots can we
determine how the thresholds on the voting machines ought to be set.
Jones also suggests that when a recount differs significantly from
the first count, only a hand examination of the ballots can
determine whether the machinery was out of adjustment or whether
ballots might have been altered. Read the Entire Article (
http://votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=718&Itemid=113