Reversal of Ballot Printout Plan Urged
County elections officials, disability-rights groups and government watchdogs called on Secretary of State Kevin Shelley to rescind a directive he issued Friday requiring that all electronic voting systems in California produce a paper ballot that voters could review.
The groups complained that such a move would be costly, pose significant technological hurdles and make it harder for some people to vote.
Shelley defended his decision, arguing that the changes could be implemented by 2006 without significant additional costs and that they are justified because of what he says is a growing crisis of voter confidence.
"I think the world has shifted in the past few months," Shelley said. "Whatever confidence voters might have had in these systems has been eroded."
The directive demands that all electronic voting devices in the state print a paper copy of every ballot as it is cast, so voters can confirm that their choices are being recorded correctly by the machines' digital "ballot boxes." When polls close, elections officials would be able to save the printouts for manual recounts.
Computer scientists, election technology watchdogs and registrars have monitored debates on the security of electronic voting systems, saying some machines could be open to tampering. Auditable paper trails have long been presented as a way to alleviate those concerns.
Two years ago, Shelley included a provision in Proposition 41, an election-system financing bill he wrote, requiring that paper ballots be printed at the close of every election day.
Shelley said that portion of the bill was implemented in a weaker form by former Secretary of State Bill Jones, whose office required only that counties have the capacity to make printouts if needed.
But Friday, Shelley reaffirmed his confidence in the technology itself, insisting that "If I didn't have confidence in the [electronic] machines, I would decertify them."
His decision, he said, was a reaction to what he viewed as widespread popular support for including a paper printout with electronic voting machines. More than 6,000 people sent e-mails, letters and faxes to Shelley's office after a report from the state's task force on electronic voting appeared on the secretary of state's Web site in July, he said.
"The average California voter doesn't necessarily have the confidence in these machines," Shelley said. "If they can see that the vote they put on the machine is what's on the paper, that will increase their confidence."
