CONCERN over electronic voting reached new levels in California last week, as the state government issued two damning reports on the technology used in the March presidential primaries.
The reports support those computer scientists and election officials who have argued that today鈥檚 e-voting machines are unreliable and open to fraud (New 杏吧原创, 14 February, p 6). The first report highlights numerous problems with reliability.
For instance, 55 per cent of the polling stations in San Diego County could not open on time because of problems with e-voting machines manufactured by Diebold Election Systems of North Canton, Ohio.
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There is no estimate of the number of people who were turned away without being able to cast their ballot. 鈥淭hese voters were completely disenfranchised,鈥� the report says.
More disturbing is the second report, which details an investigation of Diebold. The state officials say that the company flouted certification laws, failed to obtain federal certification for some of its machines, and installed uncertified software on e-voting machines in 17 counties. Diebold jeopardised the conduct of the March primary, the report concludes.
Kevin Shelley, California鈥檚 secretary of state, will decide this week whether to allow e-voting machines to be used in the presidential elections in November.
One solution would be to insist that all e-voting machines print out a verifiable paper trail which records 鈥渧oter intent鈥�. California law will require e-voting systems to produce such a paper trail by 2006.