December 04, 2006

Nov. 7: Tipping point for e-voting?"

"Technically, the Nov. 7 election was a success for supporters of the touchscreen voting machines on which more than 100,000 San Joaquin County voters cast ballots.

Politically, the election's results could turn out to be their worst nightmare.

Debra Bowen, a Democratic state senator from Redondo Beach, defeated incumbent Bruce McPherson in the race for secretary of state on Election Day. Bowen is a vocal critic of the Diebold voting machines used in San Joaquin County and has promised to review all the electronic equipment McPherson certified earlier this year.

Deborah Hench, San Joaquin County's top elections official, won't speculate on what Bowen's election means to the future of the 1,625 ATM-like Diebold TSx machines the county agreed to purchase for $5.7million three years ago. And while few believe the new secretary of state will begin her tenure by decertifying the equipment, some electronic-voting opponents believe Bowen will be more open to their concerns.

"Right now, things have been shifted badly in favor of the vendors," said Jim March of the nonprofit Black Box Voting, a leading voice among e-voting critics. "A little balance would be nice here."

Bowen was not available for comment. But Evan Goldberg, her chief of staff, said Bowen "wants to take a larger, well-reasoned look" at the TSx and other electronic voting systems many counties purchased this year to meet federal disability-access requirements.

"There are a lot of questions that voters deserve to have answered before these are used in the 2008 election," Goldberg said."

The story is here.

Posted by Randy Riddle at December 4, 2006 10:11 AM