August 05, 2007

County Election Officials: DRE Restrictions Will Be Hard to Meet

"A state directive requiring increased security on voting systems could cost counties millions of dollars, lead to long lines at the polls and delay California's results in next year's presidential primary, local election officials warned Saturday.

Secretary of State Debra Bowen informed counties late Friday night that they no longer would be allowed to use some voting systems made by companies that supply all but a handful of California's 58 counties. Bowen decertified the machines for use but said they could regain certification if the companies could prove they had improved security features.

In many counties, that means voters may have to be given paper ballots for the Feb. 5 presidential primary, like those absentee voters already use.

"I'm still a little shell-shocked," Butte County Registrar Candace Grubbs said. "Election officials in the state of California have worked long and hard to ensure elections come off well, and this is how we are treated?"

The rural, north Central Valley county uses touchscreen machines at all its precincts, so Grubbs said her office would have to buy ballot boxes and voting booths, rewrite ballots and retrain election officials.

"I think it's going to be a tumultuous process at the polls," said Riverside County Clerk Barbara Dunmore.

In Riverside and at least 19 other counties, election officials will have six months to replace electronic voting machines if they cannot meet the new standards set out by the secretary of state.

The decision followed an eight-week security review of California's voting systems that revealed flaws in some electronic machines.

University of California computer experts found that voting machines sold by three companies — Diebold Election Systems, Hart InterCivic and Sequoia Voting Systems — were vulnerable to hackers and that voting results could be altered.

Bowen decertified machines made by Diebold and Sequoia but said they could regain certification if they meet several new conditions. She also added security restrictions on machines made by Hart InterCivic.

The companies make a variety of machines, each of which will be subject to a different recertification process under the complex set of rules Bowen issued Friday.

Machines made by a fourth company, Elections Systems & Software, also were decertified because the company was late in providing information the secretary of state needed for its so-called top-to-bottom review.

Bowen said she is examining that company separately, a process that could have wide-ranging implications on Election Day. Elections Systems & Software supplies the voting equipment for Los Angeles County, the state's most populous.

Bowen withdrew certification for the county's InkaVote system while she does her own review. Elections Systems & Software defended its machines Saturday.

"The equipment that we provide to jurisdictions is secure, it's accurate, and it allows voters to have a very positive voting experience," company spokesman Ken Fields said.

Bowen, a Democratic former state senator, won election last year with the support of electronic-voting skeptics and pledged during her campaign to make sure the state's voting systems were reliable.

In her announcement late Friday, she said voting machines that failed security checks had not been properly reviewed or tested by the federal government.

"I think voters and counties are the victims of a federal certification process that hasn't done an adequate job of ensuring that the systems made available to them are secure, accurate, reliable and accessible," Bowen told reporters during a news conference that started shortly before midnight Friday.

Yolo County Registrar of Voters Freddie Oakley was among the few county elections officials who praised Bowen's review on Saturday. She said it provided much-needed scrutiny for a system susceptible to manipulation.

"We are talking about this fundamental factor in Democracy, and we need to be very serious about it," Oakley said. "Voters are increasingly worried about the quality of the systems that are being used."

Posted by Randy Riddle at August 5, 2007 07:35 AM