December 05, 2006

"Daniel Weintraub: Debra Bowen won't push for return to paper ballots"

"Debra Bowen, California's next secretary of state, was accused during the recently ended campaign of hanging too closely with opponents of electronic voting who believe the boxes can be tampered with to rig the results of an election.

Bowen posted items about voting security on her own Internet Web log. She ran an ad showing make-believe thieves stealing an electronic voting machine. Internet sites where "black-box" voting critics gather to exchange conspiracy theories buzzed about her candidacy.

Now, with her victory over incumbent Bruce McPherson secured (and undisputed, as far we know), Bowen will be California's chief elections officer in January and instantly become perhaps the nation's most prominent and influential skeptic of the technology. Or will she?

I spoke with Bowen last week as she was preparing to leave the state Senate for a month's hiatus from government before she is sworn in as secretary of state. She said she has not made any decisions yet about how to approach the issue of electronic voting. But she did say she doesn't intend to push to return California to a more paper-oriented system, or to encourage the universal use of optical scan technology, which allows voters to make their choices on paper ballots that are then counted by computers.

Instead, Bowen said she will likely focus on making the new voting technology more user-friendly.

"It's not just a matter of the hacking and all of the things people are concerned about," she said. "There have been a lot of usability issues. ... There are a variety of practical problems that deserve some attention."

She is concerned about the training of poll workers, many of whom are retirees with little familiarity with computers. And she is troubled by what happens when the electronic systems fail."

The story is here.

Posted by Randy Riddle at December 5, 2006 07:38 AM