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Released:
August
23, 2006
Americans
Concerned About Election Transparency and
Security
New
poll shows more than 60% have heard news
reports of flaws in new electronic voting
equipment
A
majority of Americans—61%—are aware of
news reports of flaws in electronic voting
machines and want members of the general
public to be able to watch votes be counted
following an election, a new Zogby
International poll shows.
The
telephone survey of 1,018 likely voters was
conducted Aug. 11-15, 2006. It carries a
margin of error of +/- 3.1 percentage
points.
Asked
whether Americans have the right to view and
obtain information about how elections
officials count votes, 92% of respondents
concurred.
"The
92% support for the public's right to view
vote counting and obtain information about
it is a very strong political value of
transparency and against secret vote
counting outside the observation of the
public," said Paul Lehto, a lawyer and
sponsor of the survey. "To put this
figure in context, support for election
transparency exceeds the support for tax
cuts, exceeds the approval of Pres. Bush
immediately after 9-11, and virtually all
other political values being measured."
Mr. Lehto is counsel in the 50th
Congressional District election contest in
California
.
Most
of those surveyed— 80%—said they want
votes to be counted in front of observers
representing the public, and that elections
officials should not rely solely on the
proprietary software that operates
electronic voting machines that are
presently being installed all over the
United States. In some models, the
electronic machines tabulate votes cast on
that machine and saves them to a computer
memory card. Results from those cards are
then added together to obtain results of an
election.
For
a complete methodological statement on this
poll, please go to:
http://www.zogby.com/methodology/readmeth.dbm?ID=1134
http://www.zogby.com/temp/store-main.cfm
(8/23/2006)
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