How Reliable Are Electronic Voting Machines?
San Diego Computer Experts Study Machines

SAN DIEGO San Diego is just days away from casting votes in its first electronic election. And who can forget why the federal government required the conversion to paperless terminals? Two words hanging chad.

The county has already spent $30 million for its new touch-screen voting machines made by an Iowa-based company called Diebold.

The San Diego County registrar of voters assures the system is reliable; however, many have their concerns.

"It isn't for voting. It isn't safe. It isn't accurate," SAVE Democracy spokeswoman Brina-Rae Schuchman said.

Registrar of Voters Sally McPherson says the system is error-proof.

"These systems are stand-alone systems. They're not connected to the Internet. They're not connected to any land. They don't even talk to one another," McPherson said.

She explained that voters their own personal voting card and follow the directions on the screen. If the voter makes a mistake, they are allowed to re-vote. Voters can double-check their entire ballot before casting it and the card is not re-issued.

Schuchman isn't the only one convinced the system won't work with 100 percent accuracy.

University of California San Diego computer security expert Yoshi Kohno and three colleagues associated with Johns Hopkins University studied the Diebold voting system last year.

"And within half an hour of beginning our analysis, we saw some major flaws that people in "computer security 101" are taught not to do," Kohno said.

The report found "significant security flaws," according to 10News.

Scientists at San Diego-based Science Applications International Corporation agreed that "the system is at high risk of compromise."

Diebold has since made some changes, security and otherwise, and state officials certified the machines for the March election.

"That's kind of like saying, oh, my house has termites. I see spots here and here, so I'm going to do some spot treatment. But to actually really have a secure system, you have to go back from scratch and bomb the whole house to get rid of all the termites or completely re-evaluate the system," Kohno said.

However, come Election Day, Maryland, Georgia, Florida and California will go forward with voting electronically.

In fact, early bird San Diego voters started casting their ballots last Wednesday at the registrar of voters in Kearny Mesa.

The registrar is still required to provide a paper ballot option and each county must generate a paper vote tally after the polls close.