Calif. secretary of state pulls plug on some electronic voting

[CShine]

SACRAMENTO – Secretary of State Kevin Shelley banned touch screen voting Friday in four California counties in the November election, saying the lack of a paper trail makes them unreliable and he threatened to block computerized voting in 10 other counties.

Shelley cited concerns about the security and reliability of new computerized voting machines manufactured by Texas-based Diebold Election systems, many of them used for the first time in the March election.

"We are acting boldly and responsibly to improve the system in time for November," Shelley said.

The decision means as many as 2 million voters in San Diego, Solano, San Joaquin and Kern counties will see paper ballots in November, marking their choices in ovals read by optical scanners. It's also a setback for a national leader in electronic voting machine technology as counties gear up to spend billions of dollars to modernize the way Americans vote.

The action will idle 10,200 Diebold AccuVote-TSx machines in San Diego County, 1,626 machines in Kern County, 1,350 in San Joaquin County and about 1,100 in Solano County.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/20040430-1421-ca-electronicvoting.html

[PROGRESSIVE1]

1. YYYYYYYYEEEESSSSSSS!!!! Kerry will win Cali!

:bounce:

:kick:

[Spazito]

2. Here's a Yahoo link that you can rate up!

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040430/us_nm/politics_california_voting_dc_1

[Qutzupalotl]

3. !

Its current average rating is 5.00 with 12 vote(s).

[Demoiselle]

9. What's with "rating" the news, anyway?

Of course I will rate this story highly as per your instructions..... especially since it's such great news for our democracy. But has it occurred to anyone that Yahoo's giving us the ability to "RATE" the news sort of goes against the whole point of the news...I mean...since when do the sheeple get to go negative on a truthful story just because it's upsetting? Or am I missing the point of "rating" the news? Are we rating grammar? Spelling? Wouldn't a lot of us be likely to rate positively only the HAPPY stories?

[deek]

20. Highly rated stories on "front page" n/t

.

[sophie996]

10. vote moving

just now. 3.95 with 45 votes

[Dr Fate]

4. DUers- dont sell yourselves short YOU did this!!!

And I would like to thank you(us, me)!!!!!

[Mountainman]

5. All those counties have a high number of repub voters.

It would have been easy to steal votes there because no one would expect a repub majority vote there.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. I am sure my Registrar of Voters is going to shit a brick

or already shiting a brick, tough shit, next case

(San Diego, County)

[Pallas180]

6. Didnt you hear Shelley say menacingly: "Diebold, dont try to pull a fast

one on the voters of California...."

and I do mean menacingly

whoopee....that starts the roll on the roll back of the fixed voting machines

[Demoiselle]

8. Lou Dobbs just headlined this as a very big deal....

...which it is! Whoopeee. Is there any chance other news organizations will question Diebold in other states? Thank you, BEV!!!!!!

[leftchick]

15. Was that not Fantastic!!!

Yeah Lou and the Cali Sec. of State! God I wish my SoS had a freakin voice on this issue! Go Bev and Andy and every other TRUE patriot!!!!!

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[aquart]

11. Yes! My sister called to tell me about it!

They were going to bring their absentee ballots TO the voting place if the machines weren't tossed.

Personally, I'm still not thrilled at the scanner. I like the idea I heard here: Paper ballots placed in clear containers; hand count, in public and observed.

I don't care for the idea of machines being involved in our VOTE at all. This is the most personal, most intimate, most vital act of citizenship, and it should not be mechanical. It should be a traditional ritual of community in which we celebrate our freedom by participating in the count.

I want to see posters saying "Will you participate in the count?" I want resumes to list vote counting with pride.

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

12. Just rated.

You have given the news article California Limits Use of Electronic Voting a rating of 5.
Its current average rating is 4.03 with 51 vote(s).

[sonias]

13. Secretary of State Kevin Shelley is a hero

I wish he was my secretary of state (TX) or better yet that all Secretaries of State had the strong sense of responsibility that he has.
Way to go Shelley!!

Die Diebold Die!

Sonia

[sfwriter]

14. What about Alameda county?

We've been saddled with that crap for a couple of years now. I've resorted to absentee voting.

[MGKrebs]

16. Listen up Cathy Cox!

You should get on this train before it's too late!

http://beatniks.typepad.com/infoman/

[leesa]

17. Excellent! My vote may actually count this time in San Diego County

No more of this bogus RNC wins all crap!

[sce56]

18. YeeeeeHaaa

Finnaly we might have turned the corner!

http://www.ss.ca.gov/executive/press_releases/2004/04_030.pdf

Just beware the Rethuglicans won't like losing power! Beware code red could be coming sooner than we think!
<>

[not systems]

19. He said Diebold was despicable hear it now...

About 1:45 into this broadcast he sounds very mad at the thieves from Texas.

http://www.kpfa.org/cgi-bin/gen-mpegurl.m3u?server=209.81.10.18&port=80&file=dummy.m3u&mount=/data/20040430-Fri1800.mp3

[Speed8098]

21. Here's ABC's take on this story

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20040430_1948.html?USad=true

Finally.:bounce: