Keeping Up Appearances: The EAC Does Damage Control

[Wilms]

Keeping Up Appearances: The EAC Does Damage Control

By Warren Stewart, VoteTrustUSA

January 16, 2007

The Election Assistance Commission has released a statement that “strongly encourages”
voting machine testing laboratories “to adopt policies that prohibit the organization and its employees from engaging in activities that may create the appearance of a conflict of interest or partisan bias.” (emphasis mine)

The directive from the EAC no doubt comes in response to concerns expressed in a New York Times article about the recent engagement of Brian Phillips (pictured at left), president of SysTest Labs, as an expert for the campaign of Republican Buchanan in the legal challenge to Florida's 13th Congressional District election.

Last week, a Denver Post article quoted incoming EAC chair Donetta Davidson saying, "When there's a conflict over an election, like there was in Florida, we don't want (these companies) to be hired by one party or another."

However, a conflict of interest statement is already present in the interim certification document signed by Wyle and SysTest. The statement was signed 'under penalty of Federal law'. Phillips would appear to be in clear violation of a law that he had to know he had signed and was in effect at the time he went to work for ES&S in Sarasota County.

Why hasn't the EAC enforced this law?

snip

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2191&Itemid=26

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