Diebold's test woes elicit probe of system

By Guy Ashley    Contra Costa Times    05 August 2005

Alameda County supervisors said they will revisit an agreement with Diebold Election Systems for a $6 million upgrade of its touch-screen voting system, responding to problems the system showed in tests last month.

"The issue will be revisited and all options will be considered," board president Keith Carson said.

The decision was good news to about 30 protesters who urged the county Tuesday to dump its association with Diebold because of troubles the company faces in gaining state certification and claims that the machines thwart democracy by using secret, proprietary software to tabulate votes.

"These are our votes," said Donald Goldmacher, a Berkeley physician who co-chairs a group called the Voting Rights Task Force. "And traditionally in a democracy there is an open process for counting them."

The county has about 4,000 Diebold touch-screens it uses in elections, but faces new mandates beginning in January requiring all such electronic equipment to provide voters with printouts to verify their votes.

In late June, county supervisors inked an agreement with Diebold to negotiate a $6 million upgrade in which it would exchange its touch-screens for newer models that come equipped with printers to meet the pending requirements.

But those plans were cast into doubt last week when Secretary of State Bruce McPherson announced the new Diebold machines had failed a battery of tests and could not be certified by the state.

Officials in McPherson's office said 19 of 96 machines tested encountered problems including paper jams and screen freezes that forced technicians to reboot the devices. Diebold officials said last week they can fix the problems and that the company will apply for certification again within the next six weeks.

Company spokesman David Bear said Diebold will improve its performance in future tests, but that "it would be naive of us not to recognize the possibility of an occasional paper jam in any system using a printer."

"California is the first state to ask for paper receipts," Bear added. "This is a new product that was subjected to a completely new testing program. We're all covering new ground here."

Elaine Ginnold, Alameda County's acting registrar of voters, said problems reported in the recent tests have her seriously thinking about a switch of strategy in which the county would emphasize paper ballots using optical scanners rather than touch-screen devices.

Ginnold is scheduled to give a report to county supervisors Sept. 13 listing the options for meeting new voting requirements.

Carson, the only supervisor who voted against the Diebold upgrade in late June, said he was "alarmed" at the breadth of the problems McPherson described in the recent tests.

"For these very important tests you have to think they brought in their best machines," Carson said. "Not ones that would fail at an alarming rate."

But Carson's colleague, Supervisor Scott Haggerty, said he thinks too much is being made of the tests.

Haggerty, the board's lone Republican, noted that no printer-equipped electronic system has been certified by the state.

"The people who are mad at Diebold are the ones who still can't get over the fact that John Kerry lost the election," Haggerty said.