"Follow My Lead"

California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley - "I call upon (federal election officials) to follow my lead and establish nationwide testing and qualification standards for (paper-trail verified) systems as soon as possible."

Wired News - Jun 15, 2004 - The California secretary of state on Tuesday released the first standards in the nation for a voter-verified paper trail for electronic voting machines, in an effort to restore voter confidence in the devices.

The standards (PDF) come six months after Secretary of State Kevin Shelley mandated that all new e-voting machines purchased in the state produce a paper trail by July 2005.

The mandate came in the wake of two reports by computer security experts that showed the machines were vulnerable to manipulation by insiders and to hacking by outsiders. And it comes a month and a half after Shelley decertified all current touch-screen machines in the state until counties can implement changes to secure the machines temporarily, or purchase machines that produce a paper trail.

"California is making sure that voters will be able to verify that their votes are being counted correctly," Shelley said in a statement. "I call upon (federal election officials) to follow my lead and establish nationwide testing and qualification standards for (paper-trail verified) systems as soon as possible."