Reply #12: Defense Department, L.A. County Consider Adopting Vermont's Vote-By-Phone

[Wilms]

Defense Department, L.A. County Consider Adopting Vermont's Vote-By-Phone System

Election Officials from Across the Country to Attend Mock Election in Vermont

SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt., Oct. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Representatives from the
Defense Department and Los Angeles County will be among the election officials
gathered in Vermont this week to consider a vote-by-phone system that was
first introduced by the state in August. They will be joined by members of
the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, the federal commission responsible
for helping to improve elections, at the first live demonstration of a voting
system that allows voters to cast their ballots using a regular telephone.

Officials from the Defense Department's Federal Voting Assistance Program
are investigating whether the technology might be a good way to meet the needs
of military and overseas voters. Election officials from Los Angeles County,
the most populated county in the country, are also considering offering voting
by phone to their constituents.

"This is the best technology available right now, so I'm not surprised
that the Defense Department and others are giving it a good look," Vermont
Secretary of State Deb Markowitz said today. "The vote-by-phone system meets
the broadest range of needs and has the most flexibility for new, future
applications."

Vermont is the first state to announce that it will offer telephone voting
in 2006, when it will make the new system available to every disabled voter in
the state. According to IVS, the Kentucky-based voting services company that
produces the system, several other states are also considering the technology.

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