E-VOTING DEAL IS A STEP TOWARD SECURE ELECTION

Mercury News Editorial

Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters Jesse Durazo cooperated. Secretary of State Kevin Shelley compromised. Together, they made a deal in the interest of an orderly presidential election.

On Monday, Shelley recertified the county's new touch-screen voting system after the county responded to Shelley's demands for a secure and accurate election in November. The county has five months to put those measures in place.

In April, Shelley banned a touch-screen system used in four counties and conditionally decertified systems used in Santa Clara and nine other counties. The unprecedented measures angered county registrars whose counties have invested $100 million in new equipment. But Shelley's actions, based on a record of software glitches and legitimate worries about fraud, were warranted.

Shelley has backed off of a few of his conditions. But he preserved the most important demands: requiring extensive poll worker training, offering voters the option of a paper ballot, and demanding that the touch-screen source code be turned over to an independent expert for analysis.

Four counties have challenged Shelley's orders in court. Their voters would be better served if their registrars spent their time working with Shelley, as Durazo has done, instead of suing him.