Ghosts in the machines plague local polling places
BY RUTH JUSTIS, Staff Reporter, The Daily Independent
June 7, 2006

Many Ridgecrest residents who set out to cast their ballots in the Primary Election were stymied by software problems. Some of the encoded cards, which enter the voter's personal information in the voting machine, were left over from a previous election and would not work in the electronic voting machines.

?It is both bad and good,? said Elections Field Representative Debbie Johnston. ?It caused some problems while we got more of the good cards delivered to Ridgecrest, but on the other hand, it demonstrated loud and clear that the safety measures work.?
 
The Kern County Sheriff's Department delivered 40 more memory cards via helicopter to Johnston and her husband, Ed, who were in the valley to troubleshoot any problems at the local polls. The couple then visited each polling place - Kerr McGee Center, First Baptist Church, Calvary Assembly of God, St. Michael's Episcopal Church, and Inyokern Baptist Church - to make sure each had an adequate supply of cards.

?We have 101 cards in the valley, so over half were fine. Inyokern had a problem first thing this morning - all they had were old cards. But they were able to get underway when workers from the polls at Kerr McGee Center delivered some cards to Inyokern,? said Ed Johnston.

Helen Parode, manager of the Kerr McGee poll, encountered the problem early in the day.
 
?We finally just went through all of our cards and took out the old ones. We had enough cards left that it wasn't really a problem. We were also able to share cards with the Inyokern poll,? Parode said.

As each voter enters the polling place, their party affiliation, precinct, etc., is encoded onto the card. A memory card inside each machine collects the information as the person casts their ballot. A paper printout of the choices made is also available for the voter to view, and is stored inside a separate canister attached to the machine.

?These machines are so user friendly that it's almost impossible to make a mistake,? said Charles Quinlan, site manager at Calvary Assembly of God. ?The voter gets a second chance at every screen on the ballot. They can also view the printout. As long as they are still at the machine, we can modify any ion. Once the voter hits the button to cast the ballot and removes the card from the machine, the card cannot be reed in that machine or any other. The machine clears the voter's information from the card. If anyone were to try to reuse it three times, that card would be permanently disabled.
 
?The safety features on these things are incredible. It takes three people to check each machine before it is ready to be used. There are several locks involved - the memory card in the machine is locked in, the paper ballot printout is locked in the canister and the machines are kept under lock and key until the information is transferred to election headquarters,? Quinlan said.

After the polls close, Ed Johnston said, the memory cards will be downloaded electronically and unofficial results will be sent to Bakersfield. The machines will be locked into special racks and kept at City Hall overnight. They will be transported to Bakersfield tomorrow, where the results will again be tabulated.

?There's no danger of anyone hacking into these machines,? said Debbie Johnston, ?Each machine is an individual program - they are not linked to each other in any way.?
 
Workers at First Baptist Church said voters were finding the touch-screen machines easy to use.

Wanda Reed, manager of the poll site at St. Michael's said some teachers had stopped by to vote on their way to class, and were thwarted by the software problems.

?I'm sure they'll be back after work. We expect a rush between about 5 and 7 p.m.,? Reed said.