Alameda County to reconsider Deibold voting machines

By Guy Ashley

CONTRA COSTA TIMES     02 August 2005

OAKLAND - Alameda County supervisors today said they would revisit an agreement with Diebold Election Systems for a $6 million upgrade of its touch-screen voting system, responding to problems the system showed in tests last month.

"The issue will be revisited and all options will be considered,'' Board President Keith Carson said.

The decision was good news to about 30 protesters who urged the county to dump its association with Diebold due to troubles the company faces in gaining state certification and claims that the machines thwart democracy by using secret, proprietary software to tabulate votes.

"These are our votes,'' said Donald Goldmacher, a Berkeley Physician who co-chairs a group called the Voting Rights Task Force. "And traditionally in a democracy there is an open process for counting them.''

The county currently has about 4,000 Diebold touch-screens it uses in elections, but faces new mandates beginning in January requiring all such electronic equipment to provide voters with printouts to verify their votes.

In late June, county supervisors inked an agreement with Diebold to negotiate a $6 million upgrade in which it would exchange its touch-screens with newer models that come equipped with printers to meet the pending requirements.

But those plans were cast into doubt last week when Secretary of State Bruce McPherson announced that the new Diebold machines had failed a battery of tests and could not be certified by the state.

McPherson said the Diebold machines showed a failure rate of about 10 percent in the tests, due mostly to unexpected screen freezes and paper jams.

Diebold officials said last week they can fix the problems encountered in the tests and that the company will apply for certification again within the next six weeks.

A company spokesman could not be reached for comment this morning.

Elaine Ginnold, Alameda County's acting Registrar of Voters, said problems reported in the recent tests have her seriously thinking about a switch of strategy in which the county would emphasize paper ballots using optical scanners rather than touch-screen devices.

Ginnold is scheduled to give a report to county supervisors on Sept. 13 listing the options for meeting new voting requirements.