California manual counts underway

Several California counties have already begun or completed the one percent, public manual count of ballots to verify the accuracy of software vote counts. More information about this procedure is available on this page.

The California Voter Foundation staff has been contacting counties to find out the date and time of their manual counts. We've learned that several of the smaller counties have already completed the process (under California law the counties have four weeks after the election to finalize and certify their results). Sacramento and San Diego's manual counts are currently underway; dates for Napa, San Luis Obispo and Tulare are provided below.

The manual count process is open to the public, and I encourage anyone who is interested in voting technology security to witness this process. Some counties have told us they'd like to be notified in advance of public observers. Contact information for all the county election offices is available on this page.

When observing a manual count, there are some things to keep an eye out for, as described on this page.

Here's what we've learned so far from the counties:

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Glenn County

Began the process on June 8, completed on June 9.

Humboldt County

Completed June 12

Lassen County

Began on June 8th and completed on June 9th.

Merced County

Completed June 9

Napa County

Hope to conduct it on June 21 and 22.

Plumas County

Completed June 12

Sacramento County

Began on June 9, contiuing until process is complete.

San Diego County

Began on June 12, continuing through June 20 or 21 between the hours of 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

San Luis Obispo County

Planning to hold the random selection of precincts on Friday at 9 a.m. and beginning manual tally at 10 a.m. on June 19. (Note: registrar suggests observers contact the office so badges can be prepared).

Shasta County

Began on June 12, for electronic ballots using voter-verified paper audit trails, and continuing through this week and perhaps into the next. Manual count of paper basentee ballots will begin on or around June 28.

Sierra County

Process is underway and continuing through Thursday.
(Note: the registrar says there is a sign posted at their office stating that they are conducting this tally and the public is welcome)

Siskiyou County

Anticipates beginning on June 15, at approximately 10 a.m.

Sonoma County

Began on June 9, continuing most likely through the end of the week of June 12.

Sutter County

Beginning June 13

Trinity County

Expect to complete June 13

Tulare County

Beginning June 15
(Note: elections office asks to be notified if observers plan to attend)

News stories highlight CA Primary voting technology issues and problems

I've spent the past few days reading over and digesting the numerous stories that have been published about voting technology issues and problems that arose during last week's California Primary. Below is a round-up, by county, of the articles on my reading list.

California

California Adds Paper Trail to Electronic Voting
June 7, 2006, National Public Radio

Alameda County

East Bay voter turnout very light
June 6, 2006, The San Jose Mercury News

'Minor hiccups' mark balloting across state, Snafus include complaints in Oakland, missing poll workers elsewhere; low turnout eases strain
June 7, 2006, Oakland Tribune

Kern County

Malfunction delays voting, election results
June 6, 2006, Bakersfield Californian

Voting problems
June 6, 2006, Taft Midway Driller

Barnett takes heat for ballot troubles
June 7, 2006, Bakersfield Californian

Ashburn Calls for Investigation of Kern Voting Fiasco
June 8, 2006, Bakersfield Californian

Ghosts in the machines plague local polling places
June 13, 2006, The Daily Independent

Merced County

Turnout low, problems plague polls in SJ, Merced counties
June 7, 2006 , The Modesto Bee

Orange County

Machine Malfunctions- broken voting machines prompt voter complaints
June 6, 2006, Orange County Register

Glitches plague voting machines, polling stations
June 7, 2006, Orange County Register

Riverside County

Voters pleased with paper trail
June 7, 2006, The Desert Sun

San Bernardino County

Web site glitch delays poll tally
June 7, 2006, The Press-Enterprise

San Joaquin County

A few glitches with voting machines
June 6, 2006, The Tracy Press

Missing volunteers, new machines cause delays
June 06, 2006, Lodi News-Sentinel

Human and machine errors cause voting problems in two counties
June 7, 2006, San Diego Union-Tribune

Tallying the lessons, Elections officials look to avert voting problems in November
June 8, 2006, Stockton Record

Ventura County

Glitches sour some on new voting system
June 7, 2006, Ventura County Star

My Day at the Polls

Today I spent several hours in Stockton, where I observed three polling places. Stockton is located in San Joaquin County, and used Diebold's TSx touchscreen voting machines for the first time since March 2004. The machines have been equipped with printers that produce a voter-verified paper record of each electronic ballot, as is now required under California law.

While I am happy that paper trail reform is now implemented, it was extremely disappointing to see how the printers were set up. There is a flap over the window on the printer unit where the paper record is displayed. If a voter wants to view the paper record, he or she must first lift up the flap. In the three polling places I visited there were no instructions being given to voters to lift the flap and inspect the record.

I do not recall seeing this flap on the demonstration unit I saw at the Secretary of State's office over a year ago. And I have no idea why Diebold placed it there. One pollworker told me it was there to protect the voter's ballot privacy, but since the paper record of the ballot scrolls out of site once a voter has finished using the unit, this explanation made no sense.

Having a flap covering the window that displays the paper record of the electronic ballot drastically reduces the likelihood that voters will verify the record, thereby undermining one of the key reasons why the printers are on the machines in the first place.

I also noticed a loud noise coming from the machines when people voted. It turned out to be the printer unit. Like the printer flap, I do not recall this kind of noise coming from the demonstration unit when it was on display at the Secretary of State's office.

It was a slow voting day at the polling places I visited, and I had plenty of time and opportunity to talk with pollworkers, inspect the machines, and ask questions of the few voters who came by to vote. Most the voters said they liked the touchscreens, a few said they did look at the paper record. Several pollworkers mentioned that voters were reluctant to return the voter access cards used to activate the machines, since many of them thought that their votes and possibly their names were stored on them.

While I was at the polling places I looked at the security seals that were placed over the memory card slots. These security seals (stickers, actually) were required to be placed on the machines by the Secretary of State in response to security vulnerabilities with the memory cards recently identified by Harri Hursti.

In the first polling place I visited, at the White Rose Church of Christ, all of the security seals were in place over the memory card slots. Those slots were also locked and the key was in the possession of the polling place supervisor. The second polling place I visited was the Sibley Community Center, where I was accompanied by a crew from the Newshour with Jim Lehrer. At this polling site I saw that only one of the four machines had the security seal over the memory card slot. Another slot above that one, where the "start" button for the machine is located, was open. I asked the supervisor why the slot was open and what happened to the seals. She said the slot should be closed, and pulled out her key and closed it and locked it.

Then she told me that it was hectic in the morning when they were setting up. Two pollworkers had failed to show up and the ones who did had trouble getting the machines up and running. The pollworkers were frantically trying to get things going, and in their haste removed all the security seals from the memory card slots. The supervisor contacted the elections office to find out what to do, and she placed all the security seals on a piece of paper with a note explaining what happened. She showed me the paper with the seals, and how the seals had changed color because they had been removed. The seals also had a bar code and a serial number on them, which is supposed to correspond with the memory card inside the machine.

At the last polling place I visited, I asked the supervisor if they would be checking the serial numbers on the seals against the numbers on the memory card at the end of the day, and was informed that this is not a required procedure. At this last site I also found another "start" button slot was left open, which a pollworker quickly shut and locked once I pointed it out. One pollworker at the last site, which was a fire station, mentioned that they had had some trouble getting the printer set up on one of the machines. He started describing it to me and I asked him if he could show me. So he got the key from the supervisor (apparently there is just one key for the machines, which opens the memory card slot, the start button slot and the printer unit), unlocked the printer, and opened it up. When I said that I thought the printers were supposed to remain shut during the election, he said they are, but I asked to see it so he showed it to me.

After my visit to Stockton, I headed back to Sacramento to vote in my own polling place. My county is using ES&S optical scan ballots, and AutoMARK units for accessibility. I decided to try out the AutoMARK. It turned out I was the first person to use it today, at 4:30 p.m. I fed my paper ballot into the machine, and started making selections. The machine is not very intuitive, and takes some getting used to. I tried some different things, like deselecting a candidate I had selected, and putting in a write-in candidate's name.

But halfway through my ballot, I got an "operator error" alert and a message saying I should contact the elections official. The pollworker came over, then an inspector/troubleshooter showed up. The machine had to be rebooted -- not just turned off, but unplugged -- and started back up again, which took eight minutes. I waited patiently and apologized, thinking I had done something to break it. It turned out that write-in votes were not allowed on the party's ballot I had selected, even though there were spaces for them on it. I'm not sure if my write-in votes, or the deselecting actions caused the machine to crash, or if it was some other problem. But we did get it back up and running, and I finished my selections, marked my ballot, fed it into the scanner, obtained my "I voted" sticker, and headed home.

Early Voting Problems in San Joaquin

The Stockton Record published this article about polling place problems in the county this morning:

Early Voting Problems in San Joaquin

The Record
Published Tuesday, Jun 6, 2006

A variety of problems at polling places throughout San Joaquin County hampered early voting efforts in Tuesday's primary election.

People were sent away without casting their ballots in Stockton, Lodi and Morada and poll workers did not show up to staff other precincts, including some in Weston Ranch.

At Lodi Fire Station No. 3, voters weren't allowed to begin casting ballots until close to 10 a.m. Polls were supposed to open at 7 a.m.

Elsewhere, San Joaquin County Registrar of Voters Debbie Hench said the Diebold touchscreen voting machines seemed to be working fine, but some poll workers were having trouble getting them set up.

A team of 415 inspectors was available for deployment to precincts where problems cropped up. But even that crew was short-handed after some unexpected departures.

"Eight of them quit between 5 and 8 p.m. last night," Hench said. "I have no idea why."

Hench said her staff trained poll workers to not let voters "just leave" if there were problems.

"Unfortunately, that message didn't get through to everyone," Hench said. "We're trying to get the problems straightened out as soon as possible."

Follow recordnet.com for more updates throughout the day.

Malfunctioning cards delayed poll voting Tuesday morning in Kern County

Malfunctioning cards delayed poll voting Tuesday morning

By STEVE E. SWENSON and SHELLIE BRANCO, Californian staff writers
Tuesday, Jun 6 2006 8:26 AM

Last Updated: Tuesday, Jun 6 2006 11:35 AM

Widespread problems with Kern County voting machines prompted election officials Tuesday morning to ask people to wait until about 10 a.m. to go the polls.

Chief Deputy Registrar Sandy Brockman said election workers learned at 7 a.m. when the polls opened that many voter access cards--the cards voters use to work the voting machines--were not programmed right to operate.

"A procedure that no one told us about needs to be done," Brockman said. "It's a widespread problem in the county."

Election workers were working furiously to remedy the problem and Brockman estimated it would be about 10 a.m. before things started running smoothly. "We're asking people not to vote for a couple hours," she said.

By 10:15 a.m., virtually all polling places were operational, due in part to a sheriff's helicopter bring the right stuff out to Ridgecrest and election workers meeting poll workers halfway in outlying areas, Brockman said.

"It's a nighmare I never wanted to handle," Brockman said.

She acknowledged that some voters left polling places without voting. She said people had 13 hours to vote so hopefully they will go back before the polls close.

Accommodations were made to enable some people to vote, including using their sample voter pamphlets, Brockman said. Others were directed to the downtown election office to vote.

As a last resort, voters can fill out their sample ballots, sign them, provide their address and fax them to the Elections Department at 868-3768, Registrar Ann Barnett told Kern County supervisors.

Some cards did work early Tuesday, but others didn't, she said. And some centers, such as Harvest Hall at the Kern County Fairgrounds, handed out a limited number of paper ballots, she said.

John Riddiough, a Bakersfield voter, said he had to write his choices by placing his paper on a wall because there were not enough tables at Harvest Hall.

It's not confidential, he said.

He and other voters described long lines of people waiting to vote.

Alan Ferguson of Bakersfield said he was waiting in a line for more than a half hour at East Hills Mall to vote.

When only some cards worked, voters had to wait until they could get one of those to vote, Brockman said.

There were not enough paper ballots for everyone, she said.

For example, Greg Van Mullem, said he was able to vote with a paper ballot at the Southwest Library because he is a Democrat, but Republicans were being told at about 8:15 a.m. they didn't have any more Republican paper ballots.

"I got to vote but Republicans were being turned away," he said.

As the morning went on, lines thinned at many polling places, voters reported.

County supervisors discussed the malfunction in their regular morning meeting.

Kern County Registrar Ann Barnett told the board people needed voter access cards that were cleared of information stored from a previous election. A clear card was necessary to access the touch-screen of the electronic voting machines, she added.

Barnett said voters can also cast their sample ballots at polling sites if there is no other way immediately available.

It would take an order from a judge to extend election hours, and Supervisor Ray Watson said he doesn't want to see someone challenge the election over the problem.

Supervisor Jon McQuiston suggested staff from the elections office should return to the board's 2 p.m. meeting with an update. The board could take an urgent vote on any steps to help, he added.

McQuiston said the board should follow up on how the voting machines' manufacturer handled such technical issues.

Barnett said she did not train her staff to provide paper ballots if the machines failed. Supervisor Michael Rubio suggested a grassroots approach--the supervisors could "get in a car and divvy up polling sites" to provide assistance.

Election Eve Thoughts

Tomorrow is the big day -- the first time California will use touchscreens with paper trails. I've been waiting a while for this day to come, and am excited and nervous about what's ahead.

Will voters take the time to look at the paper record? (Hopefully yes). Will they think it's a receipt meant for them (it is not), as many voters in Nevada did in 2004 when they voted on touchscreens with paper trails for the first time?

There are other voting challenges ahead tomorrow for everyone -- election officials, pollworkers, voters. As for me, I'm heading down to Stockton to observe Diebold touchscreens with paper trails in San Joaquin County. The 1,625 TSx machines that will be used there haven't been rolled out since March 2004. Now they've been upgraded with voter-verified paper trail printers, and the Secretary of State ordered additional security measures to physically protect the machines after memory card vulnerabilities were recently discovered. I'll be interested to see how voters respond to the paper trail, and how physically secure the machines are.

During an interview today, I was asked why people should vote in this election. It's a good question, given all the concerns that have been raised about election security, the negative campaigning, the short lineup of propositions. Why vote? It's simple. We vote because politicians pay attention to the people who vote. When more of us vote, politicians are more likely to represent the interests of all of us, and not just a few.

Polls open at 7, close at 8 p.m. Visit CVF's California Online Voter Guide for more details about voting, voting equipment, and the contests.

Tom Sullivan Show today, 3-4 p.m.

This afternoon from 3-4 p.m. I'll be a guest on the Tom Sullivan radio talk show, airing on KFBK, AM 1530 in the Sacramento region. A live audio stream is available from the station's web site.

Appearing on Tom's show has become an election tradition for me, something that I look forward to as election day approaches. We'll be talking about where to find last-minute election information online, changes in voting equipment, new security measures, absentee voting trends and probably taking some calls. Tune in if you can...

Election resources at www.calvoter.org

Next Tuesday is Election Day in California, and the California Voter Foundation's web site has a lot of resources to offer voters. Here is a summary we distributed to CVF-NEWS subscribers today.