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[ThatHawaiiGuy]

Voting Suit Gains Momentum


By Joanna Glasner / Also by this reporter Page 1 of 1

02:00 AM Aug. 05, 2003 PT

A lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of computerized touch-screen voting systems has moved to a higher-profile venue in federal appeals court.

According to Susan Marie Weber, a Palm Desert, California woman who is suing the state for sanctioning voting machines she alleges are open to manipulation, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco indicated this week that it plans to hear oral arguments in her case.

The suit, originally filed in 2001, charges that California's former secretary of state and election officials in Riverside County, where Weber lives, deprived citizens of constitutional rights by deploying touch-screen voting systems that do not provide a paper record of each vote.

"They're not allowing us to verify our votes," said Weber, an accountant who has been representing herself in the case. She claims that the computerized terminals manufactured by Sequoia Voting Systems and used in her home precinct are more vulnerable to fraud than other accepted voting methods. Such claims have been disputed by Sequoia, which says it employs extensive security measures to ensure accurate elections.

The granting of a hearing in the appeal comes 11 months after a lower-court judge dismissed Weber's case. In his ruling, Judge Stephen V. Wilson of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California concluded that Weber "presented no admissible evidence to support her claim that the use of the AVC Edge System (made by Sequoia) by Riverside County effects differential treatment of voters or vote dilution."

Weber said the appeals court originally had declined to schedule a hearing in the case, but may have changed its mind in light of the extensive quantity of documents submitted by litigants and their supporters. The court originally assigned the case to a panel of judges who do not usually hear oral arguments, but recently transferred it to one that does hold hearings.

"We're hoping the court looked at those documents and thought, 'This case is a little bigger than what we've been thinking,'" she said.

The court's move comes as controversy over the reliability of touch-screen voting systems intensifies in political and computer science circles. Much of the interest stems from the activism of a coalition of computer scientists who have warned that touch-screen systems currently in use are vulnerable to a wide range of security breaches.

Members of VerifiedVoting.org, led by David Dill, a computer science professor at Stanford University, advocate computerized voting systems that provide a printed record. With a printed record, they say, voters can check to make sure their vote is accurately recorded. In the event of a recount, the paper printouts also could count as the official ballot.

While California's former secretary of state, Bill Jones, is listed as lead defendant in the Weber case, the state's current secretary, Kevin Shelley, openly has considered the pros and cons of paper printouts. Earlier this year, Shelley convened a task force to study security issues tied to touch-screen voting systems.

But in a report released a month ago, the task force said there was no consensus among members as to whether machines deployed in California should be required to produce a voter-verifiable paper ballot.

Shelley's office declined to comment on the decision, deferring to the state attorney general, who is serving as its legal counsel. The attorney general's office also declined to comment. The secretary's office recently wrapped up a public commentary period on the voting task force recommendations.

According to Weber, appellate judges have not yet scheduled a date for the hearing.

For election watchers, however, time is of the essence. Faced with a federal mandate to update outmoded voting technologies, many counties in California and elsewhere are scrambling to upgrade their systems, often to touch-screen voting.

In California, a campaign to recall Gov. Gray Davis and elect a new leader puts further pressure on counties with outmoded systems.

http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,59898,00.html