Report: Voting system is A-OK

Alameda County supervisors on Tuesday OKd an outside report sayingthe countys electronic voting systems are secure -- despitecomplaints that the county didnt look hard enough for potentialproblems.

The acceptance of the report is one of the final hurdles SequoiaVoting Systems of Oakland must clear before getting paid $13.3million for the election equipment they are providing.

Voting rights advocates and members of a group suing the countyover concerns about the security and accuracy of the machines claimedthe board had asked for a hack test of the voting software the countyplans to use in the coming election but didnt get it. And they fearthe voting equipment could be vulnerable to an attack by an insideparty.

The county needs to open the box and see whats inside, said JonBarrilleaux, one of the plaintiffs in the electronic voting suit.

The report focused on the county and its election processes,systems and tools, and not on theoretical vulnerabilities andexploits against electronic voting equipment, its authors said.

But exasperated supervisors and Acting Regis-trar of Voters DaveMacdonald said they have gone far beyond what most counties have doneto ensure that elections here are secure. And they said the rest isup to federal and state officials.

Im sure its true more testing could be done, Macdonald said. Imnot sure where it ends.

The reports authors, Pacific Design Engineering, foundvulnerabilities with the system. But they said those problems couldbe eliminated, and Macdonald said he is taking steps to fix theproblems. Opponents dismissed the reports findings as marketing spin.

The firm found that the county had a number of security issues.They found that voting and other data -- including computer usernames and passwords -- were being sent to the countys vote tallyserver without encryption. And they found that the countys votingsoftware system security is not up-to-date.

They suggested the county take a number of steps, primarily toupdate its network security.

Macdonald said the county is taking steps to ensure the Novemberelection is secure. Election devices are shrink-wrapped, taped andtagged to guard against tampering, he said. Just two people from theregistrars office have access to the countys vote-count room, themain server there is double-locked, and there are motion sensors todetect unauthorized entry, he said.

He said he will address network security issues, though he saidthe voting system is not connected to any other county system or theInternet.

The county also will conduct a manual count of 1 percent of itsballots, he said, and will check all of its touch screen votes.

I think this is an extraordinary system. I look forward to asuccessful election, he said.

Macdonald said few voters may actually use the touch screens,which were put in place to satisfy federal rules requiring bettervoting access for people with disabilities. While touch screenmachines will be at every polling place, the vast majority of votingwill be done with paper ballots.

He said that of the 300,000 ballots cast in the June election,just 1,500 were cast using touch screen machines. And those voters,he said, get a paper receipt after they vote.

The report was accepted on a 4-1 vote, with board President KeithCarson casting the sole no vote.

Carson said he wants to see how the lawsuit against the countyturns out and that after the election, he may reconvene a workinggroup to assess electronic voting issues.

Contact Michele R. Marcucci at mmarcucci@angnewspapers.com.