Election board tells county to explain breach

By CARLOS CAMPOS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 11/03/06

Amid growing concerns over electronic voting machine security, and just days before a major election, the State Election Board was unhappy Thursday to learn officials in a west Georgia county left electronic voting and tabulation machines in an unlocked room.

The security breach occurred in 2005 and has since been fixed. But election board members rejected a proposed settlement of the gaffe negotiated by the attorney general's office, instead agreeing to require Marion County officials to appear before them next month.

A report shows that in July 2005 a Secretary of State's investigator learned that voting machines and the Global Election Management System server (a computer that tabulates results) were kept in a room adjacent to a courtroom in the Marion County Courthouse. The room was sometimes kept unlocked and used by attorneys and their clients during court.

State Election Board rules stipulate that voting equipment must be kept in a locked room and accessed only by a few election officials and other personnel.

Computer security experts and political activists have raised concerns that voting machine software can be tampered with to fraudulently alter the outcome of elections. Elections officials insist a system of checks and balances — which includes proper storage of the equipment — prevents such attacks.

The county moved the equipment into a properly secured office in November, according to a proposed consent order. The consent order only required a "cease and desist" from further violations of state rules and laws.

But election board member Randy Evans successfully urged the board to reject the consent order and require Marion County officials to appear before the panel to explain what transpired.

Evans told fellow board members that the election board must send a strong message to the county.

"All voters are going to hear is unsecure servers," Evans said. "And then they want to know what did they do about it. We're going to respond in an immediate and proper way."