November 27, 2005

"Voting machine deadline nears"

"William Schultz has to replace a county's worth of outdated punch-card voting machines, but he's unsure how to proceed.

The El Dorado County registrar of voters faces a Jan. 1 federal deadline to retool more than 110 polling places. Yet Secretary of State Bruce McPherson has not certified some of the controversial machines Schultz plans to buy from Diebold Elections Systems.

"We can't do anything until the system is certified," Schultz said. "We're just waiting to see what the secretary of state is going to do, and we're rapidly running out of time."

McPherson's staff earlier this month recommended that the Diebold TSx machines be conditionally certified, but critics raised security and accessibility concerns last week at a public hearing in Sacramento.

McPherson is still reviewing public comments and plans to allow a Finnish expert to try to hack into the Diebold system soon, said Nghia Nguyen Demovic, a secretary of state spokeswoman. McPherson has given no indication as to when he will decide on certification.

Electronic voting critics say the federal Help America Vote Act deadline requiring local officials to replace outdated and inaccessible voting machines should be extended. They suggest that electronic voting machines approved by federal officials are flawed.

And they insist that deadline fears raised by county registrars should not trump the need for secure elections.

"The next election is not until June, so the real goal should be to have it conducted with equipment that meets the standards of California and federal law," said Sen. Debra Bowen, D-Marina del Rey. "There is no requirement that every polling place be filled with electronic voting equipment. The requirement is to make the polls accessible to disabled voters and there's more than one way to do that."

County registrars are uncertain what will happen if they do not have new voting machines in place by the Jan. 1 deadline. They say they could face lawsuits or lose federal funding.

Another electronic voting machine made by Sequoia Voting Systems is certified, but not for the June primary ballot.

A third type, an optical-scan machine used in Sacramento County, meets next year's guidelines.

"It's a legal deadline, but as for what's going to happen, I don't have a crystal ball," said Conny McCormack, president of the California Association of Clerks and Election Officials and the Los Angeles County registrar. "No counties want or need to be in this position of noncompliance, and we have been forced into this position."

The article is here.

Posted by Randy Riddle at November 27, 2005 10:53 AM