Election Technology Council Announces New Leadership.

HOUSTON -- The Election Technology Council (ETC), a national trade association representing manufacturers of the voting equipment used by over 90% of the population of the United States recently appointed its new Chairperson and Executive Officers.

The new Chairperson of the ETC is Michelle Shafer, Vice-President of Communications and External Affairs for Sequoia Voting Systems, and Vice-Chair is Ian Piper, Compliance Officer for Diebold Election Systems. David Hart, Chairman of Hart InterCivic will serve as Treasurer for the Council.

The outgoing Chair is John Groh, Sr. Vice President of Election Systems & Software.

Ms. Shafer had this to say regarding the challenges currently before the council, "In the past few months, the Election Technology Council has made important progress positioning itself in order to respond more effectively as an industry to the ever-changing regulatory and legislative environment. Now more than ever, it is important for the elections industry to aggressively educate the public on the progress that has been made in securing the integrity of our elections and making voting technology accessible to all individuals."

In 2002, the Help America Vote Act was signed into law which encouraged states and local jurisdictions to incorporate electronic voting systems as a means of preventing certain types of errors in the voting process and to provide an accessible voting solution to voters with disabilities. The creation of the United States Election Assistance Commission and the creation of voluntary voting system guidelines necessitated the creation of a national trade association to speak directly to concerns as they arise. Shafer added, "The Council will also serve as a resource for our election officials. They are the practitioners in the field who need to be kept informed on the local impact of changes to voting system standards and the proposed legislation. If election officials are not an informed part of the process, the only group who will truly suffer from bad policy are the voters."

On June 1st, the Election Technology Council hired an Executive Director, David Beirne, to serve as its spokesperson for matters pertaining to the elections industry. The new address for the Election Technology Council is 14173 NW Freeway, #239, Houston, TX 77040 and their website is www.electiontech.org.

About the Election Technology Council (www.electiontech.org)

The Election Technology Council (ETC) consists of companies that offer voting system technology hardware products, software and services to support the electoral process. The ETC represents manufacturers of the voting equipment used by over 90% of the population in the United States. These companies have organized as an industry trade association to work together to address common issues facing the industry. Membership in the ETC is open to any company in the election systems marketplace. Current members of the Election Technology Council include Advanced Voting Systems, Diebold Election Systems, Election Systems & Software, Hart InterCivic and Sequoia Voting Systems.