Annapolis (AP) - Maryland's top elections official is monitoring concerns about Diebold electronic voting machines used in another state.

State elections administrator Linda Lamone wrote a letter to Diebold's top executive last month after California's secretary of state declared that some of that state's voting machines were susceptible to errors and would not be certified.

Lamone tells The (Baltimore) Sun that she sent the letter so that Maryland stays updated on tests being done on the California machines. But she says the similar Diebold touch-screen machines used in Maryland are secure and that she expects this year's elections to go smoothly.

By Ian Hoffman

Software files have company in double bind with state, feds

For more than two years, Diebold Election Systems Inc. has hit one political or technical snag after another trying to reap more than $40 million in voting-machine sales in California.

Now only a collection of tiny software files on Diebold's latest voting machines stand in the way of those revenues and more. Last summer, a Finnish computer expert using an agricultural device found he could rig the votes stored on Diebold's memory cards and rewrite one of those files to cover his tracks.

The revelation posed a double problem for Diebold: Not only could its optical-scanning voting machines be hacked, but state and federal rules for more than a year have forbidden those files in voting machines.

Most of State's Vote Machines Not Ready for Primary Time
# Electronic devices in 53 counties, including O.C., are still not certified for use in the June primary.

By Jean O. Pasco, Times Staff Writer

Only five of California's 58 counties have electronic voting systems ready for the June primary, state election officials told a state Senate committee hearing Wednesday.

"While we're moving as fast as possible, much of the time needed for each system is out of our control," said Bill Wood, undersecretary of state.

To be ready by June, manufacturers must apply for state certification by Jan. 31, he said. Officials have not said what will happen to counties whose systems are not certified.

Confidence in electronic systems may be wavering
By Ian Hoffman, STAFF WRITER

SACRAMENTO — As virtually every county in California scrambles for new voting machinery to use in the June elections, the last thing elections officials want to talk about is flaws.

But the warts were on parade Wednesday:

-Sequoia Voting Systems' computers don't reliably add in certain rare primary votes.

-Election Systems & Software's computers sometimes count more ballots than voters and can record the wrong choice for voters with long fingernails.

-Optical scanners made by Diebold Election Systems can be hacked (and so possibly can scanners sold by other vendors.)

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From: Senator Debra Bowen's Office

Contact: Evan Goldberg (916) 651-4028

SACRAMENTO – Despite the fact that 52% of the people in America aren’t confident that their votes are being accurately counted, the Pacific Research Institute (PRI) has come out and blasted the use of an accessible voter-verified paper audit trail (AVVPAT) in California elections.

“It takes the term ‘tone deaf’ to a whole new level,” said Senator Debra Bowen (D-Redondo Beach), the chairwoman of the Senate Elections, Reapportionment & Constitutional Amendments Committee. “Given the scandals involving electronic voting machines and the rising number of California voters who are losing faith in the system, how anyone can come out and say with a straight face, ‘Let’s trust the voting machine vendors, they know what they’re doing’ is beyond me.”

John Wildermuth, Chronicle Political Writer
Tuesday, January 10, 2006

California will require all electronic voting machines to produce a printed record of votes in the June election, but there are still concerns that the expensive overhaul may cause more problems than it solves.

The Pacific Research Institute, a free-market think tank, has called the paper trail requirement one of the state's top 10 policy blunders of 2005. The new law "may force California to relive the mistakes of America's punch-card voting past,'' the group said, and will make voting "increasingly difficult and negate the original virtues of e-voting: speed, cost-savings and efficiency.''

From: Senator Debra Bowen's Office

Contact: Evan Goldberg (916) 651-4028

SACRAMENTO – The issue of whether California should be using electronic voting machine systems that rely on “open source software,” instead of the traditional proprietary software being used today, will be addressed in a pair of public hearings by Senator Debra Bowen (D-Redondo Beach), the chairwoman of the Senate Elections, Reapportionment & Constitutional Amendments Committee.

“If we want people to have confidence that their votes are being counted accurately, the systems counties use to tally ballots need to be open, accessible, and completely transparent,” said Bowen, a long-time open government advocate and the author of the 1993 measure that put all of the Legislature’s bills, analyses, and voting records on the Internet. “Nationwide, only 48% of the people are confident their votes are actually being counted correctly or being counted at all and you don’t build confidence in our electoral system by leaving people in the dark. To restore people’s faith in the system and ensure ballots are tallied accurately, we need to turn on the lights and let people see how their votes are being counted and protected.”

John Wildermuth, Chronicle Political Writer
Saturday, December 24, 2005

A voting machine company whose equipment handles elections in San Francisco, San Mateo, Contra Costa, Solano and seven other California counties could be out of business in the state if it doesn't fix software problems that surfaced in November's election, a state official has warned.

"The California secretary of state is deeply concerned about problems experienced by counties utilizing (Election Systems and Software) voting equipment and software,'' Bradley Clark, assistant secretary of state for elections, wrote in a Nov. 17 letter to the Omaha, Neb., company that was obtained by the Associated Press.