Secretary Cox, 21st Century Vote Commission Announce 13 Cities Chosen For Electronic Voting Pilot Project this Fall

ATLANTA  … Secretary of State Cathy Cox today announced that the 21st Century Vote Commission has selected 13 Georgia cities to participate in a pilot project to test electronic voting equipment in municipal elections this fall.

            The Commission, a bipartisan advisory panel created by Secretary Cox’s election reform legislation enacted earlier this year, picked the 13 from among two dozen cities that formally applied to be considered. The 13 cities are:

• Buena Vista

• Canton

• Dawson

• Decatur

• Hogansville

• LaGrange

• Lithonia

• Reidsville

• Rome

• Statesboro

• Suwanee

• Thomasville

•  West Point

            “I am extremely pleased these 13 cities have been selected to participate in this important pilot project, which will provide us with invaluable real world experience on the operation of new, state-of-the art electronic voting equipment,” said Secretary Cox.  “Local election officials from across the state have embraced the opportunity to be first in our effort to install throughout Georgia election equipment that is accurate, secure, convenient and easy to use. We are excited to move forward with this important first step towards a uniform system of voting by 2004,” Cox added.

With the passage of Secretary Cox’s SB 213, sponsored by Senator Jack Hill (D-Reidsville) Georgia became the first state in the nation to mandate a uniform system of voting to correct inadequacies in current antiquated voting systems.  The FY 2001 supplemental budget included $200,000 to fund the pilot project this fall.

Secretary Cox said she expects between four and five vendors to participate in the program.  Participating cities will be assigned to different vendors, but all voters within each individual city will vote on the same type of equipment.  The state will enter into a lease agreement with each equipment supplier to cover the cost of supplying equipment, programming charges, training and support.

Ms. Cox said that Hart Intercivic recently became the first vendor of electronic voting equipment to receive final certification in Georgia.  Several other manufacturers have taken steps to complete the certification testing process and have expressed interest in participating in the pilot project.

With the selection of the 13 cities, the total pilot project will encompass 32 precincts, nearly 70,000 registered voters and approximately 250 equipment units.  Elections on tap in selected cities include races for Mayor, City Council, school board and other municipal posts.