June 29, 2006

"Coalition calls for election recount"

"A coalition of election watchdog organizations is calling on the San Diego County Registrar of Voters to conduct a full manual recount of the June 6 primary election because of alleged security breaches involving touch-screen voting machines.

Specifically, the California Election Protection Network contends the county violated federal and state regulations requiring “secure custody” of voting machines by allowing poll workers to take them home before election day.

“There is no proof of this election's legitimacy,” said Jim Soper, a computer software engineer with the group. “Despite a mountain of proof that these machines are easily hackable, Secretary of State (Bruce) McPherson certified the system, claiming a set of handling procedures would keep the machines safe. Now we learn that machines were unsecured in poll workers' homes before the election, rendering those procedures useless.”

Officials of the California Election Protection Network held a town hall meeting last night in Oceanside to discuss alleged “election violations” in San Diego County.

San Diego County Registrar of Voters Mikel Haas dismissed the complaint as “paranoia,” and said all proper procedures were followed in the June election and there is no reason for a recount.

Haas noted that only about 7,000 of the nearly 500,000 people who voted in the June 6 election in San Diego County used touch-screen machines. They were mostly voters who were handicapped, required translation or voted in person at the registrar's office. Most other voters used an optical scan voting system that required them to fill out a paper ballot.

The registrar said the county followed the chain of custody requirements for voting machines set forth by the secretary of state."

The story is here.

Posted by Randy Riddle at June 29, 2006 09:04 AM