Court clears new voting machines Lack of printouts deemed insignificant

Paperless touch-screen voting, which is spreading across California despite
some computer scientists' fears of breakdowns or election-rigging, got a
clean bill of health Tuesday from a federal appeals court.

The lack of a paper printout that would let voters double-check their
ballots is "at most a hypothetical concern" that does not show the system
is unreliable or especially fraud-prone, said a panel of the Ninth U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

"The possibility of electoral fraud can never be completely eliminated, no
matter which type of ballot is used," said Judge Pamela Rymer in the 3-0
decision. She said California "made a reasonable, politically neutral and
nondiscriminatory choice to certify touch-screen systems" that judges
should not second-guess.

The ruling validates a system now used by four counties - Alameda,
Riverside, Plumas and Shasta - and soon to be adopted by others, including
Santa Clara. One-third of California's voters will be using touch screens
by March 2006, said Kim Alexander, president of the nonprofit California
Voter Foundation and a critic of the paperless system.

Without a voter-verified paper record, computer errors or sabotage would be
virtually impossible to detect, Alexander said.

"You don't have to be a paranoid conspiracy theorist to realize there is a
serious risk to election security in elections run 100 percent on secret
software," she said.

Secretary of State Kevin Shelley, California's top elections official,
agreed with the court's ruling but is still examining touch-screen security
and will release findings in the near future, spokeswoman Terri Carbaugh
said. A task force appointed by Shelley has found security problems in the
machines but recommended against providing a printout to each voter.

The ruling comes a month after another Ninth Circuit panel allowed the Oct.
7 recall election to proceed despite complaints by civil rights groups that
punch-card ballots used by six counties, with 44 percent of the voters,
were unduly error-prone and would disenfranchise tens of thousands. The
state has agreed to eliminate punch cards by March's election.

In the ATM-style touch-screen system, a voter activates the machine with a
card from a poll worker and touches the screen to select a candidate or
ballot option. The system allows a voter to change a selection before
finishing.

It also allows only one vote in each race, preventing "overvotes" like
those that can mar punch-card and paper ballots. It also can be programmed
easily for multiple languages and greatly increases access for blind voters
and those with impaired mobility, said Alameda County Registrar Brad Clark,
whose county switched from punch cards to touch screens last November.

He said requiring a paper record would slow voting and lead to long lines
at polling places. The county tests its machines extensively before the
election and is required to hand-count 1 percent of the votes afterward, he
said.

But a critic, Stanford Computer Science Professor David Dill, said the
companies' refusal to describe their software - citing trade secrets - sets
off alarm bells with many computer scientists.

"They claim to record our votes accurately, but we have no way of knowing
if that's true," said Dill, who supports federal legislation to require a
paper printout. "We don't know what the vulnerabilities of the machines
are. .. . Eventually, someone will take advantage of the vulnerabilities."

Susan Weber, an accountant from Palm Desert (Riverside County) who filed
the lawsuit in 2001, said she would ask the full appeals court for a rehearing.

E-mail Bob Egelko at [log in to unmask]


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