LA Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/politics/cal/la-me-voting22nov22,1,255642,print.story?coll=la-news-politics-california
Reversal of Ballot Printout Plan Urged
By Allison Hoffman
Times Staff Writer
November 22, 2003
County elections officials,
disability-rights groups and government watchdogs called on Secretary of State
Kevin Shelley to rescind a directive he issued Friday requiring that all
electronic voting systems in California
produce a paper ballot that voters could review.
FOR THE RECORD
Voting machines -- An article in Friday's California
section about electronic voting machines misidentified Kim Alexander as head of
the California Voter Project. She is president of the California Voter
Foundation.
The groups complained that such a move
would be costly, pose significant technological hurdles and make it harder for
some people to vote.
Shelley defended his decision, arguing that the changes could be implemented by
2006 without significant additional costs and that they are justified because
of what he says is a growing crisis of voter confidence.
"I think the world has shifted in the past few months," Shelley said.
"Whatever confidence voters might have had in these systems has been
eroded."
The directive demands that all electronic voting devices in the state print a
paper copy of every ballot as it is cast, so voters can confirm that their
choices are being recorded correctly by the machines' digital "ballot
boxes." When polls close, elections officials would be able to save the
printouts for manual recounts.
Computer scientists, election technology watchdogs and registrars have
monitored debates on the security of electronic voting systems, saying some
machines could be open to tampering. Auditable paper trails have long been
presented as a way to alleviate those concerns.
Two years ago, Shelley included a
provision in Proposition 41, an election-system financing bill he wrote,
requiring that paper ballots be printed at the close of every election day.
Shelley said that portion of the bill was implemented in a weaker form by
former Secretary of State Bill Jones, whose office required only that counties
have the capacity to make printouts if needed.
But Friday, Shelley reaffirmed his confidence in the technology itself,
insisting that "If I didn't have confidence in the [electronic] machines,
I would decertify them."
His decision, he said, was a reaction to what he viewed as widespread popular
support for including a paper printout with electronic voting machines. More
than 6,000 people sent e-mails, letters and faxes to Shelley's office after a
report from the state's task force on electronic voting appeared on the
secretary of state's Web site in July, he said.
"The average California
voter doesn't necessarily have the confidence in these machines," Shelley
said. "If they can see that the vote they put on the machine is what's on
the paper, that will increase their confidence."
But officials in the secretary of state's office said many were form letters,
and in part reflected campaigning on both sides of the issue, not necessarily
the views of average voters.
Mischelle Townsend, the voter registrar of Riverside
County, one of the first in the
state to implement electronic voting, said that "in none of our elections
have we had any complaints."
"This is not something the public is asking for," she said.
Shawn Casey O'Brien, a disability-rights
advocate who was a member of the state task force, raised questions about how
accessible retooled machines would be for the disabled — particularly the
blind.
"We're about to indulge in a very costly procedure," O'Brien said,
reeling off printers, ink cartridges and storage costs in a litany of
additional items the new rules would require. "If people have to stand in
longer lines because machines are jamming, or there aren't as many of them,
they'll be disenfranchised, or it will make their voting that much more difficult."
But Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation, defended
Shelley's decision, saying the technology can readily be developed and
perfected.
"The election officials and people who are resisting the paper trail
reform complain that the critics and reformers are complaining about
hypothetical problems that don't exist," Alexander said. "But printer
jams and long lines at the polls are hypothetical too."
Election equipment vendors insist that they can have the technology ready for
use by 2006 — indeed, one company, Avante International, has a machine
that was used for a pilot election in Sacramento
County a year ago and now is being
reviewed by federal election authorities.
But vendors warn that the new technology would add about 15%, or $60 million,
to the estimated $400 million that counties are expected to spend on
introducing electronic voting equipment over the next few years.
Shelley said he was confident that money
would not be an issue, in part because he will commit federal and state money
to help counties that have already bought electronic systems that need to be
adapted.
In counties where registrars have not yet bought new equipment, Shelley said,
he expected that vendors would be willing to accommodate the cost of the new
regulations. He cited the example of Santa Clara
County, which recently signed an
$18.9-million contract with Sequoia Voting Systems that includes a provision
for the company to add a paper ballot upgrade at no extra cost if required.
"If it's going to be the difference between whether they're going to get a
contract or not, I suspect they may throw it in for free," Shelley said.
"They are trying to make a buck, after all."
Times staff writer Tim
Reiterman contributed to this report.