Vote safety plan told

VERIFY: Voters would be able to see, but not touch, paper versions of their touch-screen ballots.

11:14 PM PST on Friday, March 19, 2004

By JIM MILLER / Sacramento Bureau

SACRAMENTO - Touch-screen voters should be able to view, but not touch, paper versions of their electronic ballots, Secretary of State Kevin Shelley said in a draft proposal of election standards released Friday.

A spokesman for Shelley, who has set a July 2006 deadline for all touch-screen voting systems in the state to issue a verifiable paper trail, said the standards would ensure the integrity of the voting process.

But the top elections official in Riverside County, which has used touch-screen machines since 2000, said the proposed standards would cost millions of dollars to introduce. Producing a verifiable paper trail also could gum up Election Day operations, Registrar of Voters Mischelle Townsend said.

"If you have five units in a polling place and you have a mechanical printer that fails, you can't use those (touch-screen) units until the printer is functioning again," she said.

Townsend said she plans to challenge the draft standards during their 30-day public review period.

San Bernardino County will avoid the expense of changing its voting machines to produce a paper record, Registrar of Voters Scott Konopasek has said. The county's contract for its new touch-screen system includes an option to modify the machines to produce a paper trail, he said.

Under Shelley's proposal, voters could accept or reject the choices shown on their paper voting record. The system also would have to include a way for blind people to verify their electronic ballots.