Y-S voting officials: Machines safe to use

Yuba-Sutter voting officials said Tuesday that new state requirements for securing electronic voting machines can be met before the February election.

But Yuba County Clerk-Recorder Terry Hansen and Sutter County Clerk-Recorder Joan Bechtel say they believe in the safety, accuracy and efficiency of the Sequoia Voting Systems voting machines used in previous elections.

Bechtel and Hansen said they will follow directions from the state.

“She makes the rules, and we will do everything in our power to get them (the machines) recertified,” Bechtel said of Secretary of State Debra Bowen. “We can do it. We’re a small county, and we can make these kinds of changes.”

Bowen decertified the machines statewide, then recertified them, but required voting machine companies to take steps to prevent them being hacked into.

Bowen’s order bans the use of modem or wireless connections to the machines, and each machine must be recertified. She also requires a full manual count of all votes cast on Sequoia and Diebold company machines.

“I’m totally confident that we’ll comply with the law,” Hansen said. “Since 2000, it (the law) has been a moving target and it appears it continues to move.”

Hansen said hacking into the machines would be extremely difficult. Also, the team of people Bowen used to come up with recommendations are not county registrars and don’t have experience working in elections, Hansen said.

“I do find it a little disconcerting that the registrars were not allowed to be part of the process,” Hansen said. “I think the registrars could have been helpful in that process.”

Both counties have already taken additional precautions to safeguard voting machines from being tampered with.

“We went ahead and hired an outside contractor to handle the security measures,” said Hansen. That occurred long before Bowen’s actions on Friday.

Bechtel said the Sutter County machines are stored in a secure area that requires access cards for entry and that there are fewer than six seals on the machines, so if they are tampered with, “we would know immediately,” she said.

Those machines would be taken out of use, she said.

Both counties will convert to paper if need be. The Secretary of State’s decision gives the companies statewide six months to put any required fixes in place before the February 2008 election.

“We’ve had two very successful elections on our voting machines,” Bechtel said. In the canvass of the vote, Sutter County always does more than the required 1 percent recount as a precaution, she said.

“We have never been off. Not even one vote,” Bechtel said.

Hansen pointed out that the Yuba County grand jury reviewed the county’s election machines and praised the county in December 2006 for its handling of the machines.

The system was also tested following the June 6, 2006, election when candidate Rex Archer demanded a recount after Supervisor Dan Logue was re-elected.

The hand recount of ballots cast on the machines turned out to be 100 percent accurate, Hansen said.

Hansen also trusts the integrity of the county’s poll workers.

“I want my poll workers to know I stand with them totally,” Hansen said.

Appeal-Democrat reporter Daniel Witter can be reached at 749-4712. You may e-mail him at dwitter@appealdemocrat.com.