State orders testing for touchscreens
By Thomas Peele
CONTRA COSTA TIMES

Secretary of State Kevin Shelley on Thursday ordered California's counties to take extra security measures for the March 2 election due to expanding concerns about the vulnerability of electronic voting machines.

Shelley also directed the manufacturer of controversial touchscreen voting units used in Solano, Alameda and other counties to turn over software and said he would impanel a team of independent experts to review it.

The secretary's actions come amid growing concerns nationwide over the security of electronic voting and at a time when more California counties are buying the systems.

In Maryland last week, experts said Diebold machines tested there were susceptible to computer hacking that could manipulate vote totals.

Late last year, Shelley ordered that all electronic voting machines in California be equipped by July 2006 to create paper copies of ballots that could be used to validate each vote cast. But activists said the state needed to do more to protect the integrity of elections. Some call the use of electronic machines "faith-based voting" because no record of ballots is kept.

"This is moving California in the right direction. I applaud these steps," said Kim Alexander, executive director of the watchdog California Voter Foundation. The group, she said, still urges voters in counties with touchscreen machines to vote by absentee ballot in next month's election.

The most important action ordered, she said, was the independent analysis of Diebold's software.

"It needs unaffiliated eyeballs," Alexander said.

In a prepared statement, Shelley called the measures interim while the requirements due in 2006 are in development.

"These security enhancements provide our voters additional confidence that votes cast during the March 2 election will be accurately counted," Shelley said in the statement.

The moves come as Shelley's staff continues to investigate the use of uncertified software found on Diebold machines in each of the 17 counties that used the company equipment in the October recall election.

Diebold spokesman David Bear said Thursday that the integrity of next month's election was not at risk. "I think it's important to reflect that the Maryland Department of Legislative Services concluded ... that (an) election (there) could be held successfully without any changes to the Diebold software," he said. "They went on to say the software accurately counts votes cast."

Four California counties Solano, San Joaquin, Kern and San Diego are set to use the Diebold TSX touchscreen machine next month. That model has conditional state certification and has yet to win federal approval.

Solano County voter registrar Laura Winslow did not return telephone calls Thursday.

Alameda County uses a different Diebold machine, the TS model. It, too, has proven vulnerable to computer hacking in tests. Alameda County registrar Brad Clark could not be reached for comment.

Among the security measures Shelley ordered are:

• State testing of random voting machines in each county on Election Day;

• Each county must retain an image of each ballot cast. Shelley spokesman Doug Stone said he didn't know if this would occur on paper or electronically.

• The results of the voting on every machine in each precinct must be posted for public viewing when the polls close;

• Each county and voting machine vendor must prepare additional security plans.

At a meeting of the state voting system panel in Sacramento last month, activists ripped Diebold and urged the panel to ban the company from doing business in the state.

The panel gave Diebold until Feb. 15 to turn over documents related to the investigation.

Even if the panel were to decertify Diebold in California, effectively banning it from selling its machines in the state, the process takes at least six months.

Theoretically the panel could take such action in the next few months, but Diebold machines could still be used in the November election.