"Williams leads taxpayer-funded e-vote blitz"
Austin American Statesman
28 September 2006,
Page A1
This article gives mention to VoteRescue and had two quotes from Vickie Karp, including her statement, "Taxpayer dollars are being used to promote the use of the most insecure voting system ever used."
The twenty-six paragraph article gave mention to VoteRescue and had two quotes from Vickie Karp, in the final four paragraphs
Vickie Karp with Vote Rescue, an Austin-based group that opposes electronic voting, remains unconvinced.
"Taxpayer dollars are being used to promote the use of the most insecure voting system ever used," she said.
By being the face of the new voting systems, Williams' political future may be tied to the transition to e-voting.
"If there is a problem, it should be on his doorstep," Karp said. "He certified the systems" as ready for a smooth operation.
Texas Secretary of State Roger Williams is on the air statewide and on the Web 24/7 to tweak interest in electronic voting, a $3.3 million effort that is paid for by federal taxpayers.
Roger Williams Secretary of state appears in TV spots urging people to learn about electronic voting.
The job as the state's chief elections officer is a traditional launching pad for political careers in Texas. Williams, a Weatherford car dealer, high-dollar fundraiser for President Bush and appointee of Gov. Rick Perry, is considered a likely candidate for statewide office in 2010.
But probably no secretary of state in the past had so much access to the federal Treasury to raise his profile among voters.
Scott Haywood, Williams' press secretary, said his boss is just doing his job — and following federal law — by promoting the new voting systems.
After the "hanging chad" controversy of Florida in the 2000 presidential election, Congress passed a law aimed at improving ballot security plus ballot access for people with disabilities. Congress spent huge sums, as much a $3 billion, so that state and local election officials could buy new voting systems. Voters in about one-third of the nation's precincts are expected to vote electronically this fall.
In Texas, every precinct must have at least one electronic voting machine, but there is no estimate on how many localities have gone totally electronic.
Travis and Hays counties are fully electronic, but Williamson County primarily uses paper ballots counted by scanners.
The Help America Vote Act requires voters to be educated about the new systems. Texas' effort, dubbed VOTEXAS, includes radio spots and 15- and 30-second TV commercials that should reach at least 70 percent of Texans in all the major media markets.
The effort was designed to drive voters to the votexas.org Web site or its (800) 252-VOTE phone number as many parts of the state unveiled electronic voting for the first time this spring. The secretary of state spent $1.8 million before the spring primaries and will spend $1.5 million more in the weeks preceding the Nov. 7 election.
Visitors to the the Web site can try out the types of electronic machine being used in their counties. In the test, the visitor is asked to cast a ballot for the favorite food of Texas. (Consultants can make what they want of the fact that chili, fajitas and peach cobbler are more popular with the online set than barbecue brisket and chicken-fried steak.)
In the TV commercial, viewers are reminded of advances from the old technology of Betamax tapes, clunky car phones and paper ballots."
Like many other things in our lives today, voting has changed," Williams says in the spot. "It's now easier, faster and more secure. I'm Roger Williams, Texas secretary of state, reminding you to Vote Texas."
His message has been supplemented by a 33-foot motor coach equipped with electronic voting machines. The bus is visiting 40 cities around the state. It already has made stops in Austin, Round Rock and Waco.
Williams' media blitz comes as there seems to be a drumbeat of news questioning electronic voting, especially touch-screen machines.
"We understand there's a confidence issue with some voters," Haywood said.
Several states, according to The New York Times, are reversing or slowing down their conversion to touch screens. Officials in New Mexico, Connecticut and Maryland are getting cold feet, the Times reported, and lawsuits have been filed in Colorado, Arizona, California, Pennsylvania and Georgia to bar touch-screen voting.
In Texas, the Civil Rights Project sued Williams and Travis County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir in June to add a paper trail to its system, at an estimated cost of at least $3 million. A visiting judge refused to do so on an emergency basis for the November elections. A trial is pending.
Meanwhile, a Princeton University professor disclosed this month that his staff had installed a virus in a machine to subtract votes both electronically and in the backup file. The manufacturer of the machine, Diebold Election Systems, dismissed any concerns, saying that the model is no longer used and that hackers would not have unfettered access to machines in real life.
Haywood agreed.
He noted that each system has software, hardware and physical security.
"You might be able to penetrate one, but we have confidence in the system when you layer all three," Haywood said.
Vickie Karp with Vote Rescue, an Austin-based group that opposes electronic voting, remains unconvinced.
"Taxpayer dollars are being used to promote the use of the most insecure voting system ever used," she said.
By being the face of the new voting systems, Williams' political future may be tied to the transition to e-voting.
"If there is a problem, it should be on his doorstep," Karp said. "He certified the systems" as ready for a smooth operation.
lcopelin@statesman.com; 445-3617