Diebold? LA County to revisit their decision

Okay, this combines with the good news from North Dakota. (I'll post separately below.)

We'll take any and all good news! Thanks again to all the activists and scientists who spent time and courageously have spoken out on this.

There are still plenty of jurisdictions rushing through with the paperless DREs, but this is a start.


Computer Scientists Dispute Security of Touch-Screen Voting Systems
Contributed by Troy Anderson
Knight Ridder
TechNewsWorld http://www.technewsworld.com/perl/story/31264.html
August 5, 2003

Touch-screen voting systems being installed in Los Angeles County and much of the nation are prone to tampering and fraud and pose a grave danger to democratic elections, according to computer scientists at Johns Hopkins and Rice universities.

The professors say in a report that Diebold Election Systems' software is rife with glitches that would allow unscrupulous people to cast multiple votes and tamper with election results. "If the voting machines don't give the right answer, that is a threat to our very democracy," Dan S. Wallach, an assistant professor at Rice University, said. "It's easy to imagine worse-case scenarios. The Florida 2000 presidential election was an instructive example of what happens when voting systems give ambiguous answers."
...

Still, Los Angeles County officials said they have not had enough time to study the report or the response by Diebold to decide whether to go forward with plans to spend $100 million to purchase the Diebold systems for use in the November 2005 election. County officials already have purchased nearly 200 of the machines and plan to offer touch-screen voting at 12 sites for the Oct. 7 gubernatorial recall election.

"We elected to use Diebold a year ago, but we are going back out to bid," Registrar-Recorder Chief Deputy Kristin Heffron said.
"We are looking for whatever the best equipment is on the market that meets our needs. We are not in a position at this point to make any kind of decision without knowing who is going to bid on our proposal."

(more)

Maybe we need a new color -- the red states, the blue states, and the _____ states (honest, transparent, verifiable election)?

North Dakota is a ??? clear? state?



Voting-machine concerns prompt changes in state plan

By DALE WETZEL, Associated Press Writer
Bismarck Tribune
08-04-2003
http://www.bismarcktribune.com/articles/2003/08/04/news/state/sta01.txt

Spooked by reports that new, sophisticated voting machines may be vulnerable to tampering, North Dakota election officials have changed plans to install them within three years. A state blueprint for complying with a new federal voting access law no longer includes references to county use of "touch screen" machines for casting ballots.

The machines, called DREs -- short for "direct recording electronic" -- allow voters to make their ballot choices without marking a piece of paper. Votes are recorded electronically when a voter touches a screen, or pushes a button. DRE systems are already used in a handful of states, including California, Georgia and Kansas. Maryland recently signed a contract to put machines in each of its voting precincts by March 2004.

North Dakota's plan for complying with the federal law has included equipping each polling place with at least one electronic voting machine in time for the 2006 elections. But a committee of election officials and interested observers, which is drafting state plans to meet the federal law's requirements, agreed last week to eliminate its references to voting machines. The change will give officials more leeway to monitor the machines' development, and more time to pick the best solution, said Cory Fong, North Dakota's deputy secretary of state. "It does provide us with a pause before moving forward with any kind of specific technology," Fong said.

...

Under the North Dakota plan, DRE machines would be available at each precinct as a way to allow people with disabilities to vote without any assistance. However, the machines' use would not be reserved only for the disabled. County election officials say that optically scanned ballots, which are filled in with a pencil and read by a machine, are likely to be the primary way of voting statewide.

(more)

Touch screen voting. I have been sending these posts to the editor of our local paper in the hopes that they do an investigation--it's the biggest city in Kansas.

Hopefully we'll get some more media attention of this.

Safeguarding Maryland's Votes

I know it is not Kansas, but the good thing is that it is national. The concluding paragraph says

It's about time that Maryland decided to confirm the suitability of its voting mechanism. Despite the potential benefits of touch-screen technology -- and there are many, especially for voters who have disabilities or who don't speak English -- election infrastructure doesn't necessarily improve in direct proportion with dollars spent. In fact, studies have indicated that some old-fashioned ballots outperform newer vote-casting methods. And election experts have repeatedly voiced concerns about any system that entirely eschews a paper trail.

So, good news it is.

$100 MM! That smarts! Sorry Diebold - maybe you should make honest machines next time!

LA will be BOMBARDED by Diebold and its lobbyist-minions to accept its machines ....

Keeping the pressure UP, and making sure they are kept aware of the safe alternatives to Diebold .... THAT is what will seal the deal ...

These are the first shots fired in a war .....

They AINT done yet ....

A step in the right direction, at the very least.