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November 11, 2004

To the Editors,

I agree w/Julia Malone's reporting [1] that some who are examining the 2004 national vote believe John Kerry won. My understanding however is that others, following FL 2000, are motivated to work to verify our vote rather than take the word of the machine vendors' claims of accuracy.

As the article noted two instances of machine error resulted in 7900 votes being inaccurately cast or not counted. How many others like this occurred? What other problems have occurred? How does this change the 'final' vote?

These questions can only be answered by research, in this domain ignorance is *not* bliss.

If anomalies such as this continue in future elections and are not understood and corrected we run the risk of a citizenry which increasingly would not trust the vote.

This should be a bi-partisan concern as a close race with similar anomalies which results in the election of a liberal candidate may well leave conservative voters feeling that the vote cannot be trusted.

Regards,
Brendan

[1] "Kerry may have given up, but Internet backers have not", Julia Malone, Austin American-Statesman, 11/10/04 (may require registration).