Volusia dumps Diebold voting system

By JAMES MILLER    Daytona News-Journal    December 17, 2005

DELAND The Volusia County Council ditched controversial voting equipment company Diebold Election Systems on Friday in hopes of securing paper ballots for voters with disabilities.

Supervisor of Elections Ann McFall and some voters with disabilities opposed the move, arguing that some of the replacement equipment from another company may be less accessible than a less-expensive alternative from Diebold.

But activists who have fought for a paper ballot-only system hailed the decision.

"This is the only way to conduct verifiable elections," said Sylvia Perkins, a founding member of the DeLand-based Florida Fair Elections Coalition.

Under the deal, county elections officials will stop using the county's existing Diebold paper-ballot system the same type of system that came under scrutiny this week when Leon County Supervisor of Elections Ion Sancho authorized what he said was a successful hack into it.

Council members barely addressed those reports in voting 4-3 to switch to a similar system from Nebraska-based Election Systems & Software.

The contract with that company includes additional touch-screens for use by voters with disabilities. Those machines don't use paper ballots, but the company is trying to get state certification for disabled-accessible technology that does.

If the equipment known as the AutoMARK isn't certified by Feb. 22, the county can opt for a full refund or take the system with the touch-screens. Diebold offered only touch-screens without paper ballots but possibly eventually with printers for voters with disabilities.

McFall and members of her staff raised a number of concerns about the Election Systems & Software contract.

The cost for the system is about $2.7 million with $700,000 paid for by a federal grant, but additional costs for training and licensing fees in the first year would be about $498,345, said Tim Augustine, McFall's chief administrative officer. The Diebold touch-screens would have cost about $780,000 minus the grant.

Councilman Dwight Lewis said that wasn't the issue.

"If our democracy's at stake. .. we need to fund whatever we need to fund," said Lewis just before supporting the proposal. Some activists considered him a potential swing vote.

Council members Joie Alexander, Jack Hayman and Bill Long dissented, saying they were disturbed by a costly deal with no guarantee the AutoMARK will be certified.

The council's decision capped a rough week for Texas-based Diebold.

On Tuesday, Leon County commissioners OK'd a move similar to Volusia's. Hours later, elections chief Sancho let two computer security experts manipulate the system in a test he said showed election results could be altered without a trace. He said other state-certified systems might also be vulnerable.

A Diebold spokesman said the tests relied on unrealistic insider access.

No one from Diebold attended Friday's meeting. Spokesman David Bear said representatives had appeared earlier this year to address council concerns.

No one from Election Systems & Software showed up, either. County Chairman Frank Bruno, who led the charge in favor of the Election Systems & Software deal, took responsibility.

"I never extended an invitation," he said. "I just assumed they would be here."

A spokeswoman said she didn't know if arrangements for attendance had been made.

"I can tell you it (the absence) is not because we're not committed to the county or the program," said spokeswoman Jill Friedman.