Vermonters for Voting Integrity is a non-partisan group working to improve the security and integrity of our state’s election system.  Our focus over the last few years has been primarily on mitigating the proven vulnerabilities of the Diebold optical scanners that are used to count votes throughout Vermont.

Numerous independent studies have shown the system is vulerable to both unintentional computer bugs and intentional hacking and rigging.  These studies all indicate our current checks on the scanners are inadequate to catch these errors.

We have been advocating for our state to adopt the recommendations of the Brennan Report.  This is the most comprehensive study on the machines to date and it was conducted by the heads of security at Microsoft and Lawrence Livermore Labs and many other of the world’s most knowledgeable computer security experts.

The Brennan Report makes a simple recommendation: to conduct random audits of the scanners in every election.  This is a simple process by which a small number of ballots are counted by hand and the total is compared to the machine count.  By sampling a small amount, it is possible to catch most errors, whether intentional or not.

We have not experienced good cooperation with our efforts from Deb Markowitz.  While it is her job to protect Vermont voters from any type of potential problem with the election system, she has failed to recognize there is a problem. While other Secretaries of State have actually banned the machines we use or even sued Diebold, Deb has stood by and defended Diebold at every opportunity.

Vermonters for Voting Integrity was interested in the current race for Secretary of State, in hopes that the next Secretary might have a more objective and open mind regarding the Diebold scanners.  So we wrote a letter to both Jim Condos and Jason Gibbs asking them their position on this matter.  We would like to share the responses we got with you.

Jason Gibbs did not reply to our letter.  We called to ask if it was received and got their voice mail.  We left a message, asking them to please respond to the letter and to call us back if they didn’t receive it or if they had any questions.  We received no response.

Jim Condos did not initailly respond to our letter either.  So just as we did with Jason Gibbs, we called to make sure it was received.  When we called the number listed on his website, Jim himself answered the phone.  Not his publicist or volunteer; Jim answered.  He said that he did receive our letter and that he was planning on responding but he was just buried in the election and wasn’t sure when he could get to it.  He also asked me to email another copy of the letter which would make it easier to respond.

Jim indicated that he had a few minutes to discuss the issue on the phone.  He told me that it is very important for the people to have confidence in the state’s election system.  He recognizes that if people think there are problems, some people just won’t vote.  As part of his mission to get more people to vote, he wants to increase the confidence in our system.  He said he knows that regular audits are a good idea and he would conduct more audits.  He also said he would support a legislative effort to make a law requiring regular audits, instead of leaving to the discretion of the Secretary of State.  This is something we have been advocating for.  He also asked me to send him a copy of the Brennan Report and that he would closely at its recommendations.

Vermonters for Voting Integrity is pleased to share with you, that at one of the candidates for Secretary of State clearly demonstrates a desire to have a secure election system in Vermont — one that voters can have confidence in, knowing that their votes will be counted properly.  This is the foundation of our Democracy.  This candidate is Jim Condos.

The other candidate, we don’t know for sure.  But we know that he doesn’t seem to care enough about the issue to return a phone call or answer a letter asking about it.  It seems if it election integrity was important to him, he would have responded in some way.

Vermonters for Voting Integrity is a non-partisan organization and we do not endorse candidates, but we wanted to share the contrast that we exprienced between the two candidates on this issue.

I am the Director of Vermonters for Voting Integirty, and while the organization will not make an endorsement, I as a individual citizen can and would like to personally endorse Jim Condos for Secretary of State.  Wholeheartedly.