TASK FORCE ESTABLISHED

(Washington, DC) A recent letter sent by Electronic Systems & Software, Inc. (ES&S), manufacturers of the electronic voting equipment used in Sarasota County, Florida, raised deep concerns when the company publicly acknowledged that their equipment used in the November 2006 elections may have exhibited abnormal response times. Given this revelation, Chairwoman Juanita Millender-McDonald of the Committee on House Administration (CHA), is establishing a task force to look into this very serious issue.

Given that many voters believe in each election that their votes have not accurately been counted, citizens across the nation pause to reflect on the possibility of their votes being lost due to malfunctioning electronic voting equipment. In a letter sent to State and County election officials last August, ES&S acknowledged the touch screen abnormality and suggested election officials update the firmware and state certification of the voting machines. Despite those notifications, nothing was done nor were poll workers informed so that they could have informed voters of the potential touch screen response time delay.

"I cannot sit idly by and allow this statement of malfunctioning equipment made prior to the election to be ignored. Therefore, this task force will have the opportunity to review and raise questions such as, ‘What went wrong, how long before the election did state and county officials know of this malfunction, and why were safeguards not taken by State and County officials.' These serious questions require the Task force to be established immediately," said CHA Chairwoman Millender McDonald.