California Decertifies Diebold Voting Machines

Kevin Shelley, the California secretary of state, announced yesterday that he is decertifying outright 14,000 Diebold brand voting machines for the November elections and putting another 28,000 of the touch-screen devices into "conditional" decertification until problems of security and reliability are addressed. (New York Times story here.)

"Mr. Shelley said that he was recommending that the state's attorney general look into possible civil and criminal charges against Diebold because of what he called 'fraudulent actions by Diebold.' In an interview, Mr. Shelley said that 'their performance, their behavior, is despicable,' and that 'if that's the kind of deceitful behavior they're going to engage in, they can't do business in California."

What deceitful behavior? you may well ask. "A report issued by Mr. Shelley's office on April 20 accused the company of breaking state election law by installing uncertified software on machines in four counties. It said that Diebold installed systems that were not tested at the federal level or certified at the state level, and that Diebold lied to state officials about the machines."

On the "Super Tuesday" primary back in March, thousands of San Diego voters were turned away from polling places when Diebold equipment malfunctioned.

If you're offered a touch-screen machine to vote on come November 2nd, or even prior to November 2nd in "early voting," our advice is to politely ask for a paper ballot and to stick to your guns, unless your friendly local voting officials can prove to you that the touch-screen machine also produces a paper record of your vote.