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The Desert Sun

March 3, 2009

Supervisors debate electronic voting use

By Nicole C. Brambila

Sequoia Advantage voting machine
Sequoia Advantage voting machine

Riverside County is seeking more than $400,000 in reimbursements from Sequoia Voting Systems for state-mandated hand counts of electronic ballots.

Supervisors debated Tuesday whether to limit electronic voting to disabled voters in a discussion over an audit of the Registrar of Voters office.

Supervisor Roy Wilson recommended the machines be reserved for disabled voters to reduce the number of ballots to be counted by hand. Supervisor Marion Ashley said it was unacceptable that the county completed the hand count two months after certifying the election as final and complete.

“I just can’t figure out why in the world it took so long when nobody else took as long,” Ashley said. “There’s no way that I’ll accept that we didn’t get that done.”

In 2007, California Secretary of State Debra Bowen restricted the use of electronic voting machines citing concerns over tampering following a security review. Riverside County, among the first in the nation to begin using electronic voting, can use only about 700 of its 3,500 machines.

Dunmore is seeking $409,373 in reimbursements. It is unclear whether this amount is for all three elections held last year or to count the more than 72,000 e-ballots cast in November.

Residents attending the meeting questioned why the county waited to seek reimbursement.

“The $409,000 coming from Sequoia, that didn’t happen until it became an issue in the newspaper,” said Riverside activist Art Cassel, who filed a complaint with the Secretary of State in January alleging Dunmore falsely certified the election.

Dunmore had contended the costs were not reimbursable. On Tuesday, Dunmore told supervisors that only one other county, Santa Cruz, had sought reimbursement from Sequoia, and had not been paid. Dunmore said she doubted Riverside County would be reimbursed either.

Santa Cruz Registrar of Voters Julie Bustamante could not be reached for comment.

Supervisors have blasted Bowen’s policies in the past saying the county was saddled with millions of dollars of electronic voting equipment that can no longer be used.

“What kind of policy is it in the Secretary of State that puts a hug tax on the vendors to put electronic voting out of business,” said Supervisor Bob Buster.

Others wanted county counsel to spell out whom to consider “disabled.”

Supervisors approved a 90 percent increase in the cost of auditing the elections office, which found Dunmore’s office needs to do a better job to prevent tampering. The board originally approved the no-bid contract for $165,000. The audit ended up costing $315,000.

Former District Attorney Grover Trask, who headed up the audit, praised Dunmore’s efforts and called the November election a Herculean task.

But not everyone agreed that the county’s performance was up to snuff.

“I read the report and I don’t think it’s a rosy report,” Ashley said. “Being generally in compliance isn’t good enough.”

SAVE R VOTE, a Riverside County elections watchdog group who participated in the audit, is expected to give its own report on March 24.