Voter advocacy group already has lawsuit against state and 18
other counties in an attempt to block the use of certain
machines
Gilroy – A voter advocacy group that filed suit this week to block the use of certain types of electronic voting machines in California is considering additional legal action over the machines used in Santa Clara County.
“The machines are not only insecure and vulnerable to hacking, but actually produce inaccurate results,” Lowell Finley, co-director of Voter Action, said Wednesday of the Sequoia Voting Systems machines used in this county. “We focused this lawsuit against Diebold because … the case for decertification is just so strong. We are looking very seriously at a case to challenge to Sequoia touch screens as well.”
Tuesday, Voter Action filed suit against the state and 18 counties to block the use of machines made by Diebold Election Systems. The suit claims the touch screen voting machines are not secure and not easily used by the disabled. It asks that new voting systems be in place in time for the November general election, not the June primary election.
“Ideally, we hope these systems would not be used in any major election,” Finley said, “but given how close it is to June we’re not asking the court to do something that would put counties in a difficult crunch time.”
Last year, Voter Action filed suit against Sequoia machines in New Mexico, alleging security problems similar to those in the Diebold machines. In January that state delayed the purchase of hundreds of Sequoia machines.
“Right now, the systems that are most trustworthy are optical scan paper ballots,” Finley said. “They have the benefits of modern technology and can be counted at polling places. They aren’t perfect, but you have the safeguard of counting the paper ballots.”
Tuesday, California Secretary of state Bruce McPherson certified Sequoia machines for use in this state, provided the machines provide a paper record of votes, as required by California law.
Sequoia machines have been used in Santa Clara County since November 2003. The county registrar of voters could not be reached for comment Wednesday, but in a previous interview, he said that electronic voting has progressed seamlessly and allowed his office to announce final results just hours after polls close.
Registrar spokeswoman Elma Rosas said the paper trails “give voters another level of confidence in the system.”
But opponents of electronic voting say the paper trails are not easily audited and that security holes in the system put too much pressure on poll workers and election officials to guard against possible breaches and unreliable vote counts.
“There are security issues with all of the electronic voting systems the secretary of state has decided to certify this year,” said State Senator Debra Bowen, D-Redondo beach, who authored the bill that requires a paper trail. “The Sequoia machines have had problems in Chicago and they’ve had problems in Florida, and I guess we’ll have to wait until June to see if they have problems in California. … Certifying voting machines isn’t the goal here, the goal is to ensure people’s votes are accurately recorded.”
A spokeswoman for Sequoia said the decisions about voting systems usually have more basis in politics than technology. She said Sequoia equipment has undergone intense scrutiny at the state and federal level and performed well in previous elections.
“We feel very confident in the security of our systems,” Michelle Shafer said. “No votes have ever been tampered with. Our track record speaks for itself in how our equipment has performed, especially there in Santa Clara County.”
What’s the Problem
– A February study of Diebold voting machines, which are very similar to Sequoia’s equipment, said the electronic vote counters have “a number of security vulnerabilities.”
– The biggest security risks are the memory cards that store vote counts. The study detailed that one man changed election results by modifying a card, all without a password, cryptographic key or access to any other part of the voting system.
