County to post poll results

SUPERVISORS: The board meets state demands as part of a settlement of a touch-screen voting suit.

By IMRAN GHORI / The Press-Enterprise

San Bernardino County supervisors Tuesday acceded to a demand from the state to post results at polling places and finalized approval of settlement of a lawsuit over touch-screen voting.

The provision for posting results was the only issue holding up the settlement that was reached last week. The county ped its lawsuit against Secretary of State Kevin Shelley and agreed to provide extra paper ballots at polling places on Nov. 2.

San Bernardino had joined Riverside and two other counties in suing Shelley after he decertified all electronic voting machines in April, citing concerns about security and fraud. Two weeks ago a federal judge upheld Shelley's right to decertify touch-screen voting machines.

Riverside settled its lawsuit and was recertified last week. The settlement allows both counties to use touch-screen voting in November but requires them to keep extra paper ballots on hand for voters who ask for them.

Most of the other security demands by Shelley were already in place in San Bernardino, county spokesman David Wert said.

County officials were seeking a compromise with Shelley over the requirement to post voting results for each machine at polling places, but he refused to budge, officials said.

"That was an issue for the county," Wert said. "In the grand scheme of things it's not that big a deal."

Chief Deputy Counsel Daniel Haueter said the requirement will delay sending poll results to the central office by 20 to 30 minutes. But he said the issue was never a deal-breaker.

A copy of the settlement with Board of Supervisors Chairman Dennis Hansberger's signature was faxed this morning to Shelley's office and sent by overnight mail.

Carol Dahmen, a Shelley spokeswoman, said San Bernardino County will be recertified as soon as Shelley receives the hard copy and signs off on it, which could be as soon as today. "We're pleased that they agreed to implement the security measures," she said.