County Won’t Recall Questionable Electronic Voting System (Alameda) [View All]

By CHRISTINE SZETO
Contributing Writer
Wednesday, October 1, 2003

Alameda County officials said yesterday they will continue to use the electronic voting system for the Oct. 7 recall election, despite a controversial study that criticized the system's security.

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The study, released in July, called the security of the county's Diebold machines to be "far below even the most minimal security standards applicable in other contexts," citing inadequate password and encryption systems.

The Diebold voting machines replaced the controversial punch-card ballot system in Berkeley in 2002. By inserting a "smart card," voters retrieve their ballots from the electronic system and submit their votes into the machine. The card prevents voting more than once, while still protecting voter anonymity.

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"There is no way to check the vote because it is recorded internally on electronic memory and you, the voter, cannot see the vote," Dill added.

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http://www.dailycal.org/article.asp?id=12929