With a pencil or a touch, voters get their say
By Lesli A. Maxwell Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 a.m. PST Wednesday, March 3, 2004
California voters cast millions of chad-free ballots in Tuesday's primary election, using methods both primitive and high-tech. Few glitches were reported and those were mostly in the 17 counties where voters made their choices on electronic touch-screen voting systems.

It was the first California election since the early 1960s without ballots that produce the hanging paper punch-outs that fell out of favor after Florida's fiasco in the 2000 presidential election.

That debacle introduced the word "chad" to the voting public and set election officials nationwide in search of a foolproof solution. One contender was tested Tuesday.

Forty-three percent of California's electorate used touch-screen voting equipment Tuesday, a controversial system that caused problems for some voters in San Diego, Alameda and Orange counties.

Election watchdogs from Secretary of State Kevin Shelley's office fanned out across the state to keep close vigil over the touch-screen counties. The equipment is lauded by elections officials who say it's a cheaper, more efficient method to conduct an election and is pilloried by critics who fear tampering by computer hackers and a lack of a paper trail for accurate recounts.

In Sacramento and Placer counties though, ballots were cast the old-fashioned way with pencils and pens to darken the small, numbered rectangles that matched voters' choices. The two counties are using the paper-and-pencil ballots as they make the transition from the old punch card system to electronic voting.

Local elections officials reported no serious problems, though some voters found the marking style more confusing than the old punch cards that exposed only one row at a time.

"There was more searching involved to get the appropriate row and appropriate number and to make sure it was darkened in completely," said 62-year-old Jim Clay of Sacramento.

Norma Camarena, a supervisor at the Trinity Cathedral poll in midtown, said she had seen "tons of spoiled ballots" because some voters had difficulty filling in the rectangles correctly.

"That was our biggest complaint today, particularly from older voters," she said. "They didn't like the system at all."

Poll workers gave voters who were having trouble registering their choices up to three ballots to get it right, Camarena said.

Many voters poked fun at the pencil and paper method, calling it "primitive" and comparing their voting experience to high school student council elections.

"We heard lots of those jokes," Camarena said.

Election officials in El Dorado, Placer and Yolo counties - using punch card or pencil and paper ballots - reported no significant voting problems.

State election officials had their sights turned on the 17 touch-screen counties, especially Solano, San Joaquin, San Diego and Kern, where voters were using controversial equipment made by Ohio-based Diebold Elections Systems. Those machines have not been federally approved and were subject to an earlier lawsuit that sought to stop their use in the primary.

A Sacramento County judge dismissed the suit last month.

Debbie Hench, registrar of voters in San Joaquin County, where touch screens made a countywide debut, said Tuesday's balloting had gone "like any other primary election.

"Most of the questions are about nonpartisan voters and which type of ballots they can use," she said. "Otherwise, it's been very quiet."

Shelley, the state's top election official, ordered new security measures for counties using the equipment, including random tests of touch-screen machines by independent computer experts and requiring each polling place to post results.

San Diego County had troubles as polls opened at 7 a.m. Poll workers at several locations couldn't get Diebold-made machines to boot up, forcing voters to wait to vote electronically or cast paper ballots at an alternate location. County spokesman Joe Tash said elections officials fixed the problem within two hours.

"There were no issues at all with votes not being counted or recorded correctly," Tash said. "This was a problem before voters could even get to the machines to vote."

Secretary of state spokesman Doug Stone said elections officials were looking into reports of problems with voter card encoders in Alameda County. The devices, ed into voting machines, allow screens to display different political parties, languages and ballot measures.

Voter advocates said the scattered problems Tuesday reinforce their contention that electronic systems aren't perfect and need paper records of e-ballots and tighter security to preserve the integrity of the process.

"Even if everything went perfectly, the ballots can't be audited," said Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation. "One of the lessons I hope county registrars learned is that these systems do fail."