Electronic voting will be back at the polls

Andrew Edwards

Electronic voting machines will be back in Orange County for the

November election.

The equipment was banned in April by the California Secretary of

State’s office after problems were reported relating to the March

primary vote.

The recertification order, issued on Thursday, will allow the

machines to be used in Huntington Beach and other Orange County

cities under four new rules: Voters will be able to use a paper

ballot if they don’t want to use the computerized system, and the

county will provide more training for poll workers. On a more

technical side, the system’s source code must be made available for

independent analysis and no telephone or Internet connections can be

installed on voting machines.

Assemblyman Tom Harman said he agreed with the decision and

believes the machines are a good idea.

“I’m very supportive of that,” he said. “I fully thought the

electronic voting system that we used in the primary worked very

well. I was personally satisfied.”

In March, voting troubles in Huntington Beach ranged from

electrical problems, which kept machines from being usable to voters

at a Hamilton Avenue polling place, to voters being issued the wrong

electronic ballot, preventing some residents from casting a vote on

Measure E, the redistricting measure that ultimately failed.

In some cases, voters accustomed to the old paper ballots were

puzzled by the new technology.

The county will use the same machines used in the March election,

said Brett Rowley, spokesman for the Orange County Registrar of

Voters. The training given to poll workers, however, will be

different.

“We’re actively revamping our training program based on the

feedback we got,” Rowley said.

One aspect of the poll workers’ jobs that is getting more

attention is what Rowley called “scrolling,” the process poll workers

use to pick which ballot a voter gets. He said he anticipated workers

would have an easier time scrolling in November since they would have

more training and there would be fewer ballots to choose from in the

general election.

In the primaries, where each party has its own ballot, a precinct

could have as many as 11 different ballots, Rowley said.

Surf City poll workers in March said the machines deserve another

shot, and that once the voters get the feel for electronic voting,

the system’s advantages will become apparent.

“When people learn how to do it, it’s so much better,” poll worker

Michelle Turner said, adding that, “it’s easy to vote, easy to

tally.”

The biggest problem with the machines was technical, said poll

worker Margo Gayler, who worked at a precinct where the machines did

not work properly. She suggested a technician should make sure the

system is ready to go the night before the election. When the

equipment was up and running, technology-savvy voters liked the

machines, she said.

“Most of the voters loved it, but most everybody is computer

literate now,” she said.

A future plan to enhance the security of electronic voting is

scheduled to be in place in the county by 2006. By that time, Rowley

said, a “paper trail” system would be used so voters could verify

their votes on a paper printout after they cast their ballots.