By April Halprin Wayland Manhattan Beach
On Dec. 20, Secretary of State Bruce McPherson declared he will not certify any system for use in California unless it meets the most stringent voting system requirements.
Yet on Feb. 17, Secretary McPherson re-certified Diebold voting machines, despite the fact a report he released concluded there were a minimum of 16 security flaws with them.
He said there were “bugs” which could allow an attacker to completely control the behavior of the [voting machine]. An attacker could change vote totals, modify reports, change the names of candidates, change the races being voted on, or insert his own code into the running firmware of the machine, he said.
I am confused and appalled. What changed in the two months between the Secretary’s statement and the recertification? How can we be assured of our most fundamental right as citizens?
I demand that the California legislature honor its oversight responsibilities by ordering a credible, independent investigation of any and all voting systems used in our state. At the conclusion, the voters of California deserve a point-by-point assessment of the security flaws identified by Secretary McPherson.
The gubernatorial election is in six months. The presidential election is just two years away. Don’t we all want to be sure our votes are counted?
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 19, 2006. Read the original PDF.