Thursday, April 22

Not Enough Counties For My Liking

But it's a start...

Voting panel recommends that California stop using touch-screen machines

California should ban the use of 15,000 touch-screen voting machines in the November election because the equipment malfunctioned in last month's primary, an advisory panel said Thursday.

The state Voting Systems and Procedures Panel said that the machines made by Diebold Election Systems did not perform well last month and that many voters in San Diego County were turned away.

The panel cited a litany of other problems, including fears that the systems are vulnerable to security breaches.

The decision affects machines only in San Diego, Solano, Kern and San Joaquin counties. If Secretary of State Kevin Shelley goes along with the recommendation, those counties will have to revert to paper ballots.

Machines made by Diebold and other manufacturers in 10 other counties were unaffected by the recommendation.