E-voting systems OK'd, except Diebold's
Company must prove problems are limited, can be fixed with more security
By Ian Hoffman, STAFF WRITER
After months of anxiety, California elections officials learned Wednesday that nearly a half-dozen voting systems could be ready for purchase and use in the June primary.
The state's chief elections officer, Secretary of State Bruce McPherson, had wielded the power of the nation's largest voting market in ordering U.S. voting-machine makers to finish private, national testing by Tuesday.
Manufacturers balked, but the market pressure worked: By day's end, all but one major manufacturer had cleared national testing and now are lined up for California review.
Only Diebold Election Systems Inc., which has struggled more than two years for California approval, still was in national testing Wednesday for its new, flagship voting system. But state elections officials said Diebold still could clear that final hurdle and supply voting equipment to nearly a third of California counties, including Alameda, San Joaquin and Marin.
Local elections officials voiced some relief. Each voting system still faces examination and mass testing — a kind of mock-election run on dozens of voting machines to verify their reliability.
"It's very good news, and I think we're very glad to hear this," said Janice Atkinson, assistant registrar of voters in Sonoma County. "But how long will the state certification take, and once the state certification is complete, how long will a vendor take to deliver the equipment?"
"At least now," said David Tom, elections manager in San Mateo County, "there's more definition to where we could be, whereas before we didn't have much of a timeline."
The crunch in voting systems for California and most other states came from twin deadlines last month that almost half of the counties in the nation broke. Federal law required at least one handicapped-accessible voting machine in every polling place by Jan 1. State law in California and 25 other states also require any new voting system to offer some form of paper record as a backup or for use in recounts.
Nearly a third of California counties are still looking to Diebold's latest system to comply with both those laws. After a Finnish computer expert succeeded in manipulating vote tallies
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