New electronic scanners miscounted some county votes

By: GIG CONAUGHTON - Staff Writer

SAN DIEGO A month after problems with their new, $31 million electronic voting system caused 36 percent of polling places to open late to voters, San Diego County officials said Wednesday that a different error resulted in 2,821 votes being miscounted.

County officials said the miscounts did not affect the outcome of any races and that corrected vote counts had been forwarded to the California Secretary of State's office.

They also said the error was not caused by the county's new "touch-screen" voting machines, but by electronic scanners used to tabulate paper absentee ballots.

But county and state officials indicated the latest problem had further strained their respective relationships with Ohio-based Diebold Systems Inc., the company that made the machines.

The latest problem also cast doubt on whether the Diebold system could or would be used by San Diego County voters in November. State officials said they are conducting a hearing next week to discuss the situation and that "possible decertification is on the table."

Diebold officials did not return calls Wednesday.

The company has come under intense criticism over several months from the secretary of state's office, which is investigating the company's use of "uncertified" software in an Alameda County election. In addition, critics have argued that electronic voting systems are inherently untrustworthy and could be rigged to manipulate elections.

On Tuesday, San Diego County Chief Administrative officer Walt Ekard sent a letter to Diebold President Bob Urosovich expressing the county's "dissatisfaction," and stating, "These performance failures are unacceptable."

Dianne Jacob, chairwoman of the county board of supervisors, said she was "very disappointed" in Diebold, and that she did not know if the company could correct the problems.

Asked if the county could seek to break its agreement with Diebold over performance issues, Jacob said, "It's too soon to tell. We would have to take a look at that."

San Diego County supervisors voted unanimously in December to spend $31 million on 10,200 Diebold electronic voting machines after two years of study. However, Jacob said Wednesday that none of that money has yet been paid, and she said the company is contractually obligated to pay for whatever system the county uses in November if its machines are decertified.

San Diego County and other counties nationwide were forced to adopt new voting systems by this year's elections. Federal and state officials banned punch-card ballot systems because of the disputed presidential election in 2000.

In March, a still-mysterious power drain is believed to have caused local poll workers to be presented with an unfamiliar computer screen that barred them from programming the "smart cards" that voters needed to use the touch-screen machines on the morning of the statewide primary election.

County reports say the problem forced 36 percent of the county's 1,611 polls to open late and caused poll workers to temporarily turn a still-unknown number of voters away.

Despite the opening-day problems, most voters said they "loved" the new touch-screen system, saying it was much easier to use.

A county report subsequently said poll workers were not trained well enough to handle the problem themselves.

On Wednesday, County Registrar of Voters Sally McPherson said elections officers discovered the new problem last week while reviewing election results to certify the final tallies for the state.

She said eight machines supplied by Diebold were used to perform "optical scans" on 208,446 paper absentee ballots. The machines miscounted election results in two races, the Democratic presidential primary race and the Republican primary for a U.S. Senate seat, she said.

McPherson said when officials did a detailed breakdown they noticed voting tallies were off. With help from Diebold, the machines were able to immediately determine the miscount was on the absentee ballots and not the touch screen machines. A recount was done, and it was determined that 2,821 absentee ballots cast for Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry were actually counted for Dick Gephardt. McPherson did not provide breakdowns of the senatorial race changes.

She said the problems should not shake people's confidence in electronic voting systems.

"The reports have been corrected and there wasn't any impact on races here locally," she said. "That's the main point, that it didn't affect any races."

However, Pam Smith of SAVE Democracy, a group based in Carlsbad that has been very critical of the county's decision to use the machines, said she thought the new problem would add fuel to criticism.

"There's only so many times you say 'I told you so,'" Smith said. "We have a lot of concerns. I'd like to see them scrap the whole thing and make a sculpture out of it."