from
VerifiedVoting.org
March 12, 2003
After months of public outcry over the threat of
election problems related to the use of paperless
electronic voting systems, a pair of California State Senators have made a bipartisan plea for the immediate decertification of these systems.
This is absolutely huge, the libertarians are up in arms about it, and the progressives are screaming bloody murder. If Perata, who totally represents a "machine democrat" in California is pushing for this, Shelley might be forced to decertify, which would be a feather in the cap for us voter rights activists.
-C.
Senate Majority Leader Don Perata, D-Oakland, and Sen. Ross Johnson, R-Irvine, urged Secretary of State Kevin Shelley to decertify the machines and disallow their use in November. If Shelley declines their request, the senators the chairman and vice chairman of the Elections and Reapportionment Committee say they will fast-track legislation denying use of the machines in
California.
Perata called the March 2 primary "a test flight of widespread use of these machines. "I think it's fair to say the test flight crashed and burned," he said.
"None of us want California to be the sequel to
Florida."
After many problems were reported throughout the
"Super Tuesday" states, including California, it was reported that in Orange County over 7000 voters were disenfranchised after being given the wrong ballot (a problem that was widely reported on Super Tuesday across the Nation. At that time, it was reported "Wide margins in most races seem likely to spare the county the need for a costly revote." However, it now appears that mistakes with electronic ballots last week affected the outcomes of any races, one low-profile contest is now separated by just five votes -- leading one candidate to suggest that no one will ever know who really won.