Diebold Machine May Get Boot ============================ By Kim Zetter
Story Wired April 22, 2004

location: http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,63179,00.html

SACRAMENTO, California -- A California voting systems panel recommended
Thursday that the secretary of state decertify an electronic voting machine
made by Diebold Election Systems, making it likely that four counties that
used the machines will have to find others for the November election.

The panel said the state should decertify the Diebold TSx. The TSx was used
for the first time in California during the March primary in Kern, San
Joaquin, Solano and San Diego counties. Kevin Shelley, California's
secretary of state, has until April 30 to decide whether to act on the
panel's recommendation. The state must give counties a six-month notice to
take machines out of commission before an election.

The panel discovered last November that Diebold had installed uncertified
software on the machines.

The voting panel also recommended to Shelley that he ask the state attorney
general to examine the possibility of bringing civil and criminal charges
against Diebold for violating California election codes, which state that
vendors cannot change software without notifying the secretary of state's
office. The codes also say that no vendor can install uncertified software
on voting systems.

"This doesn't solve the problems," said Tab Iredale, a Diebold developer.
"It just sets a tone of confrontation at a time when we should be working
together to address issues with the certification process."

Diebold spokesman David Bear said the company intends to try to resubmit
the TSx machines for federal and state certification before the November
election. Members of the voting-systems panel have said they no longer want
to certify machines under the pressure of an impending election. But a
spokesman for the secretary of state said Diebold will not be barred from
resubmitting for certification.

Deborah Hench, San Joaquin County's registrar of voters, expressed surprise
at the panel's move. She said she had no idea what her county would do if
instructed not to use the TSx machines in the November election. For the
March election, the county borrowed optical-scan machines from other
counties and from Diebold. If the secretary of state agrees to decertify
the TSx, the counties will have to scramble to find optical-scan machines,
and there might not be enough to go around.

Diebold Election Systems President Bob Urosevich was forced to defend his
company's business practices Wednesday at a contentious meeting in
Sacramento before the panel. Urosevich, accompanied by a defense lawyer and
a public relations consultant hired specifically to see the company through
its California crisis, worked hard to convince the panel that the company
has reformed its ways and can be trusted to conduct elections.

But members of the panel appeared to disagree with the company's claims,
saying repeatedly that Diebold had been less than forthcoming during the
state's nearly five-month investigation into its practices, often producing
"frivolous" documents or responding slowly to state queries.


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