Senators aim to bar touch-screen voting

By Elise Ackerman

Mercury News

 

Warning that the presidential election is at risk, two state lawmakers said Wednesday that they would ask Secretary of State Kevin Shelley to ban the use of touch-screen voting machines in the November ballot.

``There were far too many problems in last week's primary election to continue using the electronic voting machines,'' state Sen. Ross Johnson, R-Irvine, said in a statement. ``I don't want to see California become the Florida of 2004.''

Electronic voting machines are used in 15 California counties, including Santa Clara and Alameda.

Last month, Johnson, who is vice chair of the Senate Elections and Reapportionment Committee, and Sen. Don Perata, D-Oakland, the committee chair, introduced a bill that would move up the deadline requiring touch-screen machines to produce a paper record of voters' ballots. Currently, the machines produce only digital ballots. Some computer scientists argue that the machines are susceptible to undetectable error and fraud.

If Shelley does not ban use of electronic machines in the upcoming presidential election, the senators are expected to ask the Legislature to take action.

A representative for Shelley's office declined to comment.

Equipment problems in San Diego, Alameda and Orange counties prevented an unknown number of voters from casting ballots during the March 2 election. According to a report Wednesday, a technical glitch prevented 36 percent of San Diego's 1,611 polling places from opening on time. A similar problem affected 18 percent of Alameda County's 1,096 poll places.

Both Alameda and San Diego used new voting-card encoders made by Diebold Election Systems. The encoders booted up an unfamiliar screen, flummoxing poll workers.

Orange County used electronic machines made by Hart InterCivic that do not use touch screens. Still, poll workers were apparently confused by the new system and gave thousands of voters the wrong ballots.

Darren Chesin, chief consultant for the Senate elections committee, said it was wrong to blame the problems on poll workers.

He said before touch-screen machines are used again, the senators want the mechanical problems to be fixed.