State official OKs e-voting receipts

By SCOTT VANHORNE, San Bernardino Sun   22 January 2005

California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley on Friday approved a long-awaited voter-verified receipt for electronic voting machines despite detractors' claims that it may undermine ballot secrecy.

The system records votes on four-inch rolls of paper, similar to what's used in cash registers. Some say the sequential record could be used to link voters to specific ballots.

"Everybody wants the paper-ballot receipt but not one that takes away voter secrecy,' said Bev Harris, founder of Black Box Voting, an electronic voting watchdog group.

Sequoia Voting Systems, which sold San Bernardino County a $16.7million touch-screen voting system in July 2003, created the receipt system so its customers can comply with a congressional mandate to provide a voter-verified paper trial by January 2006.

Electronic voting opponents have long demanded a paper trail, claiming the computer-based systems can be hacked and voting results changed without any written record of the votes.

"It amazes me to see that people are willing to throw up roadblocks even in front of things that they want,' Sequoia spokesman Alfie Charles said.

The receipt appears under a piece of glass on the voting machine so voters can confirm their choices before finalizing their electronic ballots, which are stored randomly in the machine.

Some fear nefarious persons could compare the receipt rolls with voter sign-in sheets or other information, such as who voted first or last on a machine, to determine how a person voted.

David Jefferson, a computer scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Northern California, was so concerned about the secrecy issue he cast the sole vote against the receipt system on the Voting Systems and Procedures Panel on Thursday.

Jefferson was the only computer scientist on the seven-member panel.

Charles said the secrecy concerns are unfounded.

Local election officials will keep receipt rolls under lock and key, and precincts usually have more than one voting machine, so tracking who voted on what machine would be a difficult task.

But Jim March, a Black Box Voting Board of Directors member, said determined people could infiltrate the polls and gain the necessary information.

"The secrecy of the vote is almost a holy thing,' he said. "You do not want this even possible.'

March said receipts could be sliced individually inside each machine and ped into a basket to prevent sequential storage.

But Charles said such systems are fraught with problems such as paper jams that could cause election headaches.

"That's the last place you want to be ... having a poll worker trying to trouble-shoot on Election Day,' he said.

County spokesman David Wert said the receipt system will be used in June when Ontario and Chino hold special elections to fill a mayoral post and council seat, respectively.

He hailed the system as a breakthrough for electronic voting.

"That is the ultimate assurance that the count is accurate,' he said. "It will eliminate any and all concerns about the reliability of electronic voting.'