An effort to install electronic voting technology for the upcoming November election was halted by Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell in July because voting machines failed to meet security requirements.
Hardin, Lorain and Trumbull counties chose to update their voting machines but will now have to wait until manufacturers can catch up to new security requirements.
Athens County uses punch cards.
As I made clear last year
I will not place these voting devices before Ohio's voters until identified risks are corrected Blackwell said in a written statement.
As a result, the counties will use their current voting devices in the November election.
Blackwell's decision is based on preliminary findings from his second round of security testing conducted by Compuware Corporation, which show the existence of previously identified, but still unresolved security issues.
Examinations issued by Blackwell in December 2003 revealed 57 potential security risks within the software and hardware of the voting devices offered by Ohio's voting systems venders: Diebold Election Systems, Election Systems and Software, Hart Intercivic and Sequoia Voting Systems. Blackwell warned the voting manufacturers that if standards were not met, then the machines could not be deployed.
Sen. Teresa Fedor, D-Toledo, said she agrees with Blackwell's decision to halt the deployment.
We do not want to go from a voting system with a hanging chad to a voting system where we have an unverifiable and invisible chip she said.
There are a number of reasons the new technology isn't ready for the November election, Fedor said.
At the time, vendors were required to provide the new voting machines, voter-verifiable paper audit trails were not approved by the federal government, she said.
The General Assembly passed legislation in June to make voter-verifiable paper audit trails a requirement in new Ohio voting machines. By 2006, all 68 counties in Ohio that use punch cards must have the new technology.
In addition, standards were never set for voter-verifiable paper audit trails at the federal level like they were supposed to, and it has fallen in the laps of state officials, Fedor said.
Diebold Election Systems was the only vendor to submit revised voting software and hardware for retesting and was selected by the three counties to provide the new machines.
Despite meeting some requirements, their machines do not have the ability to create voter-verifiable audit trails yet, said David Bear, Diebold spokesman.
The concept of receipt is a new process
and currently
there are not any standards of functionality
he said.
Diebold's touch-screen voting machines could be modified to meet new standards by 2006 if requirements were not too
complex, Bear said.
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Megan Cotten
