Shelley asks registrars' support

ELECTION: The secretary of state asks registrars to help ensure the accuracy of touch-screen voting.

12:22 AM PST on Saturday, February 14, 2004

By TAMMY McCOY / The Press-Enterprise

Despite an outcry from election officials in several counties, the California secretary of state will stick with a plan he contends will help ensure that touch-screen voting is reliable and secure.

Secretary of State Kevin Shelley on Friday responded to criticisms and concerns over his directive, and asked county registrars to act as a team.

"I believe the security directives issued by my office are the right steps," Shelley said in a letter to county election officials. "I hope that you will work with me," he wrote.

Shelley was responding to a letter sent to his office Tuesday from registrars from throughout the state. They questioned his Feb. 5 directive calling for strict measures to ensure that computerized voting systems are not breached by hackers and that each vote is counted.

In addition to the testing, Shelley's directive calls for printing a permanent record of ballots cast soon after the polls close.

Riverside County Registrar of Voters Mischelle Townsend responded to Shelley's letter via e-mail Friday night.

"Security and integrity of the election are our foremost priorities and always have been," Townsend wrote. "We will comply with all existing statutes, not political rhetoric. The Legislature is responsible for enacting election laws, which the counties administer."

In his letter, Shelley defended his right to require county registrars to comply with his directive by pointing to the state's Election Code, saying, "I have the broad duty and power to ensure that election laws are uniformly applied, administered and enforced."

He reinforced his belief that "parallel monitoring" of the touch-screen systems, using ed machines to test the accuracy of the system under controlled conditions, including videotaping, is "the next best thing to having a paper trail."

The voting machines have the ability to print paper audits, and Riverside County has done so and conducted manual recounts five times at the request of candidates, Riverside County election officials have said. The person requesting a recount must pay for it, according to the registrars' letter to Shelley.

Shelley said the precautions would protect voters and serve as a stopgap until all counties can produce a paper record for voters to inspect at the polls. All voting machines must produce such printouts by July 2006.

Shelley pointed to increased public concern about the potential for fraud and computer hacking in touch-screen systems.

The 10 registrars who sent a group letter to Shelley explained that their machines are not linked to a computer network and are not connected to the Internet during voting hours.

Registrars have also said Shelley's plan is intrusive and costly, and that the secretary of state did not offer to help fund the security measures.

Doug Stone, Shelley's director of communications, said Friday night that Shelley is looking for a way the state can reimburse the counties for extra costs associated with his directive.

"We can't guarantee it," he said by phone. "We are working hard to see what we can do."

Contact Tammy McCoy at (909) 368-9466 or tmccoy@pe.com