CALIFORNIA bans computerized ballots

[Guest guest]

CALIFORNIA bans computerized ballots

California is the economic engine of the USA. It is on the cutting

edge of technology and is the world's 6th to 8th largest economy.

California's Govt has recently banned computerized electioneering as

unreliable.

Australians have began a campaign against their use and the BBC has

featured the ongoing debate on the issue.

Ther big question is why did India's leadership put the fate of

their future in the hands of computers?!

VRN

Calif bans computerized ballots

CALIFORNIA BANNED COMPUTERIZED BALLOTING

http://www.kron4.com/Global/story.asp?S=1830963&nav=5D7lMkhJ

BBC ON THE DANGERS OF COMPUTERIZED ELECTIONS

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3169706.stm

AUSTRALIAN CONCERNS WITH ELECTRONIC BALLOTING

http://www.verifiedvoting.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=206

Read bills to ban paperless electronic voting, SB 530 and SB1723

http://www.legislature.ca.gov/cgi-bin/port-postquery

 

SACRAMENTO (AP) -- Secretary of State Kevin Shelley banned touch

screen voting Friday in four California counties in the November

election, saying the lack of a paper trail makes them unreliable and

he threatened to block computerized voting in 10 other counties.

Shelley cited concerns about the security and reliability of new

computerized voting machines manufactured by Texas-based Diebold

Election systems, many of them used for the first time in the March

election.

"We are acting boldly and responsibly to improve the system in time

for November," Shelley said.

The decision means as many as 2 million voters in San Diego, Solano,

San Joaquin and Kern counties will see paper ballots in November,

marking their choices in ovals read by optical scanners.

It's also a setback for a national leader in electronic voting

machine technology as counties gear up to spend billions of dollars

to modernize the way Americans vote.

The action will idle 10,200 Diebold AccuVote-TSx machines in San

Diego County, 1,626 machines in Kern County, 1,350 in San Joaquin

County and about 1,100 in Solano County.

But it may not affect an earlier generation of 4,000 Diebold

electronic voting machines in Alameda and Plumas counties, or

approximately 24,000 machines manufactured by three other companies

and used in eight other counties.

Shelley set 23 conditions for those counties to use their touch

screen machines, including making alternative paper ballots

available to voters.

California counties with 6.5 million registered voters have been at

the forefront of touch screen voting, installing more than 40

percent of the 100,000-plus machines believed to be in use

nationally.

The decision six months before a presidential election reflects

growing concern about paperless voting inside the secretary of

state's office and among many voting activists and computer

programmers.

Many believe a paper printout of voter choices -- required in

California by 2006 -- will protect against fraud, computer hacking

and electronic errors.

Diebold has been a frequent target of such groups, though most

California county election officials say problems have been

overstated and that voters like the touch screen systems first

installed four years ago.

A state advisory panel conducted three days of hearings on touch

screen voting before recommending that Shelley ban voting in

counties that didn't allow voters an option to use a paper ballot.

A state investigation released this month said Diebold jeopardized

the outcome of the March election in California with computer

glitches, last minute changes to its systems and installations of

uncertified software in its machines in 17 counties.

It specifically cited San Diego County, where 573 of 1,038 polling

places failed to open on time because low battery power caused

machines to malfunction.

Diebold officials, in a 28-page report rebutting many of the

accusations about its performance, said the company had been

unfairly singled out for problems with electronic voting and

maintained its machines are safe, secure and demonstrated 100

percent accuracy in the March election.

But Diebold acknowledged it had "alienated" the secretary of state's

office and promised to "redouble its efforts" to improve relations

with counties and the state.

The company, based in McKinney, Texas, is a two-year-old subsidiary

of automatic teller machine maker Diebold, Inc., of North Canton,

Ohio, and represents about five percent of its business.

Last week, Diebold Chairman and CEO Walden W. O'Dell downplayed the

significance of California'####### and said the company planned to

stay in the elections business. Diebold also has extensive touch

screen business in Maryland and Georgia.

California lawmakers, meanwhile, still plan hearings on a pair of

bills that would ban all touch screen voting in the November

election.

The bills are sponsored by lawmakers in Orange County, where some

touch screen voters in March received the wrong electronic ballots

and Alameda County, where some machines malfunctioned and forced

voters to use paper ballots. A hearing is scheduled Wednesday before

the Senate Elections and Reapportionment Committee.

(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. .)

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