County proceeds on touch-screen voting machines

By Helen Gao 
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

November 26, 2003

After months of delays and uncertainty, the county is moving ahead with plans to spend $30 million to buy touch-screen voting machines for the March 2 primary, the county's elections chief said yesterday.

The Board of Supervisors is expected on Dec. 9 to authorize buying 10,200 machines from Diebold Election Systems Inc. of Canton, Ohio. The machines will replace punch-card ballots, the type that caused confusion in the 2000 presidential election in Florida.

San Diego and other counties in the state are under a federal court order to eliminate the antiquated system. The county's replacement effort, however, was held up by the state's delay in certifying Diebold's technology.

County Registrar of Voters Sally McPherson said Diebold has finally received conditional certification from Secretary of State Kevin Shelley.

Computer scientists and researchers have criticized Diebold's machines, alleging that they have major security lapses that would allow votes to be changed after they've been cast.

Although Diebold's certification is conditional, Shelley has said, "There is no lack of confidence in the ability of the software" already in use throughout California.

Diebold's conditional certification says it must comply with and pay for an audit of its product and participate in a Dec. 16 state elections meeting to discuss the audit, all of which the company has agreed to do, McPherson said.

Despite the months-long uncertainty surrounding Diebold, the registrar's staff has been training to ensure a smooth transition from punch-card ballots to touch-screen machines.

"It's not an easy task," McPherson said. "I feel that we will be ready. We will be well-prepared."

County officials renegotiated its contract with Diebold on Monday after learning that the state would require voting machines to print a list of the voter's choices for review starting in July 2006. The list would be behind glass, and couldn't be removed.

The latest Diebold machines come with a built-in printer, but they only print voter reports for poll workers – not statements that voters can view to verify their votes before casting them.

Diebold has agreed to modify the county's machines for free by the 2006 deadline so voters can review a printout of their ballots before casting them.

David Bear, a Diebold spokesman, said the technology exists to upgrade the machines. "It's our intent to meet the requirements as called for," he said.

Election officials consider touch-screen technology superior to punch-card ballots, which allow hanging chads that can disqualify votes, and superior to optical scan systems, which require voters to use pencils to bubble in their choices on paper ballots.

Touch-screen technology has built-in mechanisms to prevent overvoting – casting more than one vote for a political office or ballot measure. It also is equipped to reduce undervoting by reminding voters they have blanks on the ballot.

---

Helen Gao: (619) 718-5181; helen.gao@uniontrib.com