Dear WOTE Participant,

General agreement was reached during the Wednesday morning plenary session of WOTE on the conclusions and action plan as laid out in the statement below.

In particular, the seven signatories to this letter agreed to help with the website and event, as well as in submitting the statement to the FEC before the end of the comment period Monday Sept 10.

It would therefore be greatly appreciated if you would indicate your support by responding (replying) to this email and including the word "agree" preferably in the first line. [Otherwise, if you cannot support this initiative, please include the word "disagree" or "abstain".]

Cordially,

Robert Boram <>, David Chaum , Ed Gerck , Jonathan Goler , David Jefferson , Ron Rivest , Ed Rodriguez

.....................................................................

This statement reflects the opinion of signatory attendees to WOTE (but not necessarily the views of organizations with which they are affiliated).

It became clear that: * There is considerable scientific literature and expertise applicable to the subject of security in voting systems -- integrity and ballot secrecy -- that has largely been untapped by and even unknown to the voting equipment community. * The process by which voting systems are approved and improved generally can better reflect the best practices applied to other types of security devices and systems.

As a result, we have decided to: * Encourage the posting and discussion of responses to the FEC VSS upgrade on a website created for this purpose. * Organize a meeting in Washington DC on November 10 and 11 to provide background on applicable security techniques and constructively explore processes for evaluation of voting systems generally. * Invite the cooperation and participation of the FEC and NISTin these activities.

-- Jonathan Goler (jagoler@mit.edu), September 07, 2001