NEWS RELEASE: MARCH 16, 2005

DAVID COBB FORMALLY ENDORSES
VELVET REVOLUTION'S "DIVESTITURE FOR DEMOCRACY"!

Green Party Presidential Candidate Sends Letters to Vote Companies urging
adoption of VR Recommendations to restore 'Confidence in Electoral System', 
'Respect for Voters' and 'Democratic Ideals'!

Today Green Party Presidential Candidate David Cobb has sent a letter to the voting machine companies of America, formally endorsing Velvet Revolution's "Divestiture for Democracy" Campaign and urging them to stand with VR to help restore integrity to our country's Electoral Process!

Mr. Cobb, along with the Libertarian Party's Presidential Candidate Michael Badnarik, was responsible for demanding a recount of Ohio's Presidential Election after thousands of documented irregularities began to emerge out of the state after the election.

As well, Mr. Cobb sent a letter of support to Velvet Revolution's co-founder, Brad Friedman.

Identical letters were sent by Mr. Cobb to the leaders of all nine of America's major voting machine companies. Here is the text of the version sent to ES&S:

 

March 16, 2005

Aldo Tesi, CEO
ES&S
11208 John Galt Blvd
Omaha, NE 68137

Dear Mr. Tesi:

As an American citizen and a recent presidential candidate, I want to have faith in the vote counting process. Unfortunately, with more than 50,000 documented instances of irregularities in the past election, I am unable to trust either the vote counting process or its results without an open, accountable and independent method of public verification.

Public involvement and oversight in the voting process is essential. The integrity of our democracy demands that steps must be taken immediately to restore faith in our elections and the winners that they produce. These steps must include: having a paper ballot for each vote cast, independent analysis of voting machine software and hardware, open software source code, no contributions from voting companies to candidates for public office, no networking of machines and the public dissemination of all relevant voting data and documents. These steps are supported by millions of Americans and scores of voting rights organizations including VelvetRevolution who has already contacted you in this regard.

Your company is, in essence, performing a governmental function by counting the votes cast for political candidates and ballot measures and therefore must be accountable to the voters. Unlike the past, where voting machines produced a paper ballot that was counted by elections officials, many voting machines now receive, store, and tally votes, all without a single elections official knowing for sure if the votes were properly cast and accurately counted. This has greatly undermined public confidence in our electoral system.

I am writing to you now to specifically request that your company demonstrate its respect for the voters of this country and its democratic ideals and take the steps outlined above to restore integrity, accountability and transparency to our elections.

Thank you for your consideration. I look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

David Cobb
2004 Green Party presidential candidate

Here is the text of Mr. Cobb's letter to VR:

March 16, 2005

Brad Friedman, Director
VelvetRevolution
POB 9576
Washington, DC 20016

Dear Brad:

Congratulations to VelvetRevolution for launching the Divestiture for Democracy Campaign to restore confidence in our electoral system. I am happy to endorse your nine specific demands for transparency and accountability for public elections. 

Companies which serve an essential governmental function such as vote-counting are, in essence, arms of the government and must be held accountable like any other administrative agency. Vote-counting companies which receive taxpayer funds simply cannot conduct their work in secret. The public must have access and oversight to all phases of the election and vote-counting processes which are the heart and soul of our democracy. 

Companies which manufacture, program and service voting machines must respect the integrity of the elections process and the public function they serve. These companies must offer paper ballots for every vote cast, allow complete public access to all voting machine software and hardware, provide for independent analysis of their machines and audits of their tabulations, and allow disclosure of all their data. 

Companies which do not measure up to these standards of transparency are unfit to serve the public interest.

Thanks for providing leadership on this very important issue. Keep up the good work. 

Sincerely,

David Cobb 
2004 Green Party presidential candidate

VR has been asking the citizenry to join us in the campaign by donating to VR (we are currently funded solely by citizen contributions!) and by sending an email to the companies stating their support for this campaign (we've set up a page to send email to all 9 companies in less than a minute!).

For more information on Velvet Revolution's "Divestiture for Democracy" campaign, please write to DV4D@VelvetRevolution.us or Media may contact publicist Ilene Proctor at (310) 271-5857.

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