[E-voting] Who are ITAA?

[Margaret McGaley]

I've noticed recently that a lot of articles quote from a guy in ITAA
(Information Technology Association of America) as a "staunch defender of
e-voting systems". 

This morning I found an article [1] in BlackBoxVoting.org about a conference
call between the various e-voting vendors and ITAA about ITAA being hired by
them to lobby on their behalf. The article links to a kind of scary agenda [2]
for the call.

The ITAA's website (www.itaa.org) links to the website of "Election Technology
Council" (www.electiontech.org) which says:

	Millions of votes have been lost during recent elections in part because
	outdated technology failed, most notably during the 2000 presidential
	election debacle. Although electronic voting systems can solve this
	problem, widespread propaganda from a vocal minority is raising doubts
	about modern technology.s place in the voting booth. The ETC exists to
	help election officials, lawmakers, policy analysts, the media and the
	voters separate myths from reality on this important issue.

I'm never quite sure how seriously I can take BlackBoxVoting.org, I think I'm
put off by the tabloid style. But I can't imagine that they would fake that
agenda. And the Election Technology Council certainly do exist.

Scarey.

Margaret


[1] http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0308/S00175.htm
[2] http://www.blackboxvoting.com/pdfs/itaa_memorandum.pdf
-- 
Margaret McGaley
Margaret.McGaley at redbrick.dcu.ie
http://evoting.cs.may.ie