Diebold could be voted out of state

[R. A. Hettinga]

<http://www2.ocregister.com/ocrweb/ocr/article.do?id=91493&section=REGION_STATE&subsection=REGION_STATE&year=2004&month=4&day=22>

The Orange County Register

Thursday, April 22, 2004

 Diebold could be voted out of state
  Panel slams touch-screen maker for errors during March vote.

 PANEL: California Assistant Secretary of State Marc Carrel glances at a
touch-screen voting machine Wednesday.
 RICH PEDRONCELLI, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
 By JIM WASSERMAN
 The Associated Press


 SACRAMENTO - Beleaguered electronic-voting machine maker Diebold Election
Systems weathered new accusations Wednesday of computer glitches,
last-minute software fixes and careless job performances that, in the words
of the California Secretary of State's Office, "jeopardized the outcome of
the March election."

 A state voting systems panel is considering disciplinary action against
the Texas- based firm, which could bruise its standing nationally as states
gear up to spend billions of dollars for new touch-screen voting equipment.

 The Diebold investigation is part of a two-day hearing into touch-screen
voting in California, where fears of another disputed presidential election
have activists pressing for a ban on electronic voting this November.

 Today, the Voting Systems and Procedures Panel is scheduled to recommend
which voting systems should be used in this fall's general election, a
decision that Orange County officials fear could unfairly force them to get
rid of the county's $26 million electronic-voting system.

 Orange County Supervisor Chris Norby and Registrar of Voters Steve
Rodermund, who attended the hearings in Sacramento, argued that their
machines are more reliable than the controversial touch-screen machines
used in other counties. Orange County uses eSlate equipment, manufactured
by Hart InterCivic of Austin, Texas.

"Base your decision on us as Orange County, not all of California,"
Rodermund said. "I think you'll see Orange County is doing the right way
and making sure we modify based on needs."

Rodermund said he had mixed feelings about a proposal to require a paper
trail of votes cast on electronic machines, SB 1438, which passed the
Senate Elections and Reapportionment Committee on a 6-0 vote Wednesday. But
its sponsor, Sen. Ross Johnson, R-Irvine, said a paper trail is vital.
"Democracy is too important to trust completely to a machine - much less a
machine that showed itself to be a lemon in the March primary election,"
said Johnson, who is co-sponsoring the paper trail bill with Sen. Don
Perata, D-Oakland.

 Diebold President Robert J. Urosevich apologized Wednesday to Secretary of
State Kevin Shelley, the eight-member voter systems panel that oversees
California voting machinery and to 17 counties that use its
electronic-voting systems.

 The committee today is expected to decideDiebold's fate, which could
include fines or banning its equipment in California.


-- 
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R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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