Tuesday, March 30, 2004

Received this today - Wired considers it important enough to highlight it in a special alert. > > Note: For specific feedback on this alert, please send it to: wiredpr@wired.com Dear HotWired Reader, Today Wired News is running a special report entitled, "How Electronic Voting Threatens Democracy" (Full story: http://go.hotwired.com/news/evote/0,2645,62790,00.html/wn_ascii_se). The story, an in-depth look at the growing controversy surrounding electronic voting machines and the companies that manufacture them, raises important questions about the security of our voting system in this presidential election year. I'm sending out this e-mail so you'll be sure to read the piece. Electronic voting has been touted as the solution to the hanging chad debacle of the 2000 presidential race. With funding from Congress, voting officials across the country have been aggressively adopting e-voting in their districts. It's estimated that about 50 million people will vote on a paperless touch-screen voting machine this year; another 55 million will use optical scan machines that require voters to use a pen to mark a paper ballot, which the machine then scans. Yet there's mounting evidence these machines are far from secure. In today's story, Senior Reporter Kim Zetter writes about how that evidence came to light over the past year. Zetter documents election glitches, including machines that sometimes fail to boot up, fail to record votes or even record them for the wrong candidates. Her story also raises serious concerns about the people behind the machines, including the partisan loyalty of e-voting company executives. It's no wonder that computer scientists, election officials and activists are wondering whether electronic voting can be trusted. You'll notice that Zetter's story, which took several months to produce, is longer than most you read on Wired News. That's because the topic is complex, involving many people, companies and details. Ultimately, however, it shines a light on one of the more important technology stories -- I might say stories, period -- of this election year. Sincerely, David Ian Miller, Wired News managing editor Note: For specific feedback on this alert, please send it to: wiredpr@wired.com You are receiving this email because you elected to subscribe to the HotWired Homepage mailing list. To unsubscribe from this newsletter, simply reply to this message.   4:35:35 PM