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For Immediate Release
August, 26 2019, 12:00am EDT
Contact:
Don Owens, dowens@citizen.org, (202) 588-7767
Mike Stankiewicz, mstankiewicz@citizen.org, (202) 588-7779
Congressional Committees Must Require Voting Machine Vendors to Explain Poor Security Record & Practices
Bipartisan Group Calls on Congress to Hold Vendors Accountable
WASHINGTON
Today, election security advocates from across the political spectrum called on the U.S. Senate Rules and House Administration Committees to hold the nation's largest voting system vendors to account in a hearing on election security.
The groups sent a letter signed by Public Citizen, FreedomWorks, the National Election Defense Coalition, the NAACP, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), the League of Women Voters, Project On Government Oversight (POGO) and several others, and calls on the U.S. Senate Rules and U.S. House Administration Committees to bring major national voting system vendors to Capitol Hill for hearings to answer for their continued practice of selling insecure voting systems to states and localities.
Both The New York Times Magazine and McClatchy Co. have extensively reported on the questionable practices and sales conduct of voting systems vendors. Questions abound about new machines with Windows operating systems that expire before November 2020, voting machines that connect to the internet and non-disclosure of the vendors' owners and major investors.
In February 2018, the Times Magazine reported that one of the largest voting system vendors, ES&S, pre-installed remote-access software on its voting machine systems. The company then denied the software's existence in press reports. Remote access software which operates over the internet allows for backdoor entry by hackers into voting systems. Later, the company responded to a letter of inquiry from U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and reversed itself, admitting that it did install remote-access software on some of its voting machines, but did not detail how many.
The letter notes that the last hearing the Senate held to which the vendors were invited, only one of the largest vendors agreed to testify. The letter closes by urging the Committees to "require participation by the voting system vendors" to ensure that a hearing can be held.
To speak with an expert, please contact Don Owens, dowens@citizen.org, (202) 588-7767.
Read the joint-letter here.
Public Citizen is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization that champions the public interest in the halls of power. We defend democracy, resist corporate power and work to ensure that government works for the people - not for big corporations. Founded in 1971, we now have 500,000 members and supporters throughout the country.
(202) 588-1000LATEST NEWS
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Haitian refugees living in the United States with temporary protected status were given a reprieve Monday night when a federal judge blocked an order by the Trump administration to strip them of their TPS—an effort that many feared would lead to an immediate intensification of efforts to target such communities with the same heavy-handed tactics seen by federal agents in Minnesota, Maine, and elsewhere.
US District Judge Ana Reyes in Washington granted a request to pause the TPS termination for Haitians while a lawsuit challenging the order issued by Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem in November proceeds.
The termination of TPS for Haitian nationals was set for Tuesday, but Reyes' 83-page order stated that it "shall be null, void, and of no legal effect."
Rose-Thamar Joseph, the operations director of the Haitian Support Center in Springfield, Ohio—which has a large Haitian community that has been the target of racist and xenophobic attacks from President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and their allies—said the judge's ruling means "we can breathe for a little bit."
The residents of Springfield and surrounding areas have been anxious that their community would be the next target for Trump's aggressive deportation tactics. The legal challenge against the termination of TPS for Haitians claims the secretary acted with "animus," which is evidenced by repeating public remarks by Noem and other members of the administration.
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Jerome Bazard, a member of the First Haitian Evangelical Church of Springfield, told NPR that life in Haiti remains too dangerous for many in his community to return.
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The sense of relief was felt beyond Ohio, as people from Haiti living TPS status live in communities across the US.
Tessa Petit, executive director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition and a native of Haiti, said the ruling is a welcome development for the approximately 330,000-350,000 people living in the country with TPS, which allows them to work and pay taxes. In her ruling, Reyes noted that Haitians with TPS generate $5.2 billion annually in tax revenue.
"For Haitian TPS holders and their families, this decision provides immediate relief from the fear of family separation, job loss, and forced return to life-threatening conditions in Haiti," said Petit, "where political instability, gang violence, and humanitarian collapse remain acute. No one should be deported into crisis, and today’s ruling affirms that the law cannot be twisted to justify cruelty.”
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Ambulances waited for hours on Monday on the Egyptian side of the border, ready to take patients to 150 hospitals across Egypt that have agreed to treat patients from Gaza, before five people were finally able to cross after sunset.
The process, said al-Wahidi, "will not allow us to evacuate patients and provide medical services to them to give them a chance at life."
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