Merced County voters urged to ?get it on paper?

Central Valley Business Times 
October 28, 2005

With the deadline for requesting an absentee ballot fast approaching, the California Voter Foundation is urging voters in nine electronic voting counties ? including Merced County in the Central Valley to "Get it on paper."

That's because the counties will be using paperless, electronic voting machines in polling places on Nov. 8. The other eight so-called ?paperless? voting counties are Alameda, Napa, Orange, Plumas, Riverside, Santa Clara, Shasta, and Tehama.

"Studies continue to find that electronic voting machines are prone to error," says Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation, a Davis-based nonprofit, nonpartisan organization advancing paper backups and public auditing of computerized vote counts.

A recently published U.S. Government Accountability Office report found numerous security problems with electronic voting systems, and recommended the use of voter-verified paper audit trails, as did the Carter-Baker Commission on Federal Election Reform.

Citing security concerns and an inability to conduct meaningful audits of election results on the paperless systems, Ms. Alexander said voters in the nine e-voting counties should immediately request an absentee ballot from their county elections office.

"We want them to know that they have a choice. They can request an absentee ballot and vote on paper,? she says.

Absentee ballot applications are included in the sample ballot pamphlets mailed to all voters by county election offices. Absentee ballot requests must be received by Tuesday, Nov. 1.

Counties using paperless e-voting systems are home to 26 percent of California's registered voters. A law passed last year to require a voter-verified paper audit trail to back up every electronic ballot does not take effect until the June 2006 statewide election.

Many counties, however, are not waiting. For the first time in California, seven counties will use electronic voting equipment with voter-verified paper backups. Forty-two counties, comprising 68 percent of the state's voters, use paper voting systems.