Contact: Ellen Theisen
      360-437-9922
      Executive Director, VotersUnite!
      ellen at votersunite.org

Port Ludlow, WA, Monday, August 2, 2004. VotersUnite! (www.votersunite.org) has mailed letters to the chief election officers in all 50 states, informing them of crucial, new information that could impact the adminstration of elections.

Included in the letter is information about the ES&S bugs that were reported in Miami-Dade County, Florida (see https://www.votersunite.org/info/auditbug.asp).

John Gideon, Information Manager for VotersUnite! said, "We've discovered that ES&S is failing to notify its customers about the bugs and the work-arounds. The Election Center is not notifying ES&S customers, nor is the EAC, or NASED, or NASS. So we are."

"Until an official structure is in place to distribute crucial election information to those who administer our elections, it seems to be up to concerned citizens to take the initiative," he added.

In addition to the ES&S bugs, the letter sent on July 30 alerts state election officers to these issues:

-	The key role of election-specific ballot programming in the vote-counting process and, consequently, the extreme importance of adequate pre-election testing for all systems.
-	The fact that both ES&S and Diebold printeries have delivered printed ballots late in recent primary elections and that a labor dispute is occurring at the Diebold printery in Everett, Washington. VotersUnite! is recommending that administrators establish a back-up plan in case the vendors are overwhelmed with ballot orders for the November election.
-	The importance of backing up election data, in light of the recent backup problems in Miami-Dade County.

The letters should begin arriving on Monday or Tuesday.

Local election administrators and members of the media are invited to view the information here: (https://www.votersunite.org/takeaction/new_eo_info.asp)