Officials specify e-voting issues

Alternatives to punch-cards considered

By JOE LIVERNOIS

jlivernois@montereyherald.com

Monterey County election officials almost went there, but they didn't. And now they're glad they didn't implement electronic voting machines countywide.

"There's too many issues with electronic voting, needless to say," said Monterey County Registrar of Voters Tony Anchundo.

The local elections department dabbled with touch-screen voting devices several years ago, putting a couple of the high-tech machines at shopping centers for voters who wanted to try them. Touch-screen voting was also used for a couple of small-scale elections, including a Carmel municipal election and a Washington Union School District board election.

The machines have not been used since 2002.

Anchundo said voters and his office had no problems with the machines during its experimental program, but some counties that converted completely to touch-screen voting machines during have reported nothing but trouble in the past month.

Technical glitches delayed vote counting during the primary elections earlier this month in several counties that have converted to touch-screen machines.

"When we were using them, it was on such a limited basis that we had no problems," Anchundo said.

The county quit using the few touch-screen machines it had in 2002, deciding not to use them on election days at polling places throughout the county.

"We just weren't ready to roll them out on the precinct level," Anchundo said. "Cost was an issue."

Nevertheless, the county must prepare to switch over to another mode of voting as federal law has required election officials to abandon existing "card-punch" ballots after the hanging chad episode of Florida in 2000.

"We've got to get out of the punch-card business by 2006," Anchundo said.

At the moment, existing technology offers only two choices: touch screen or optical scan voting.

Anchundo said he is currently investigating the county's options, but would not likely recommend touch-screen machines unless the technology improved to include a "verifiable paper trail."