Holding voting machine manufacturers accountable for their equipment is important for transparent elections. We have a chance to do just that with legislation waiting to be signed into law in California. It's SB 1401 (Pavley) Elections: Ballot cards and voting systems. Following is a brief summation of what's been going on with full articles linked below about how this legislation came to be.
Back in 2008 The Humboldt Election Transparency Project uncovered a glitch in the software the county elections department was using. They discovered the first 197 ballots were not counted, it did not affect the outcome of the election so it did not have to be re-certified. The software company, Premier Elections Solutions, formerly known as Diebold, apparently had known about this since 2004. The Registrar of Voters, Carolyn Crnich reported this to the Secretary of State's office. It was learned from the reporting that two other counties in CA used the same system: Santa Barbara & San Luis Obispo but had been told how to correct the error. Several other States were also using the same system.
Fast forward to today with an article in the Times-Standard by Thadeus Greenson: Every Vote Counts: Report, Legislation Seeks more accountability for elections equipment manufacturers. He says the study by the Brennan Center for Justice found that election manufacturers needed to be held accountable and the author of report, Lawrence Norden was the inspiration for the legislation, SB 1404, that's sitting on the Governor's desk waiting to be signed. "It would require election equipment vendors to immediately report any errors, flaws or malfunctions to the California Secretary of State's Office, which would then be required to report them to the Elections Assistance Commission. Vendors or manufacturers that know of a problem but fail to report it would face a $50,000 fine." - a direct quote from the article.
Let's make this happen. Call the Governor's Office at: 916-445-2841. Fax: 916-445-4633.
email: gov.ca.gov/site/contact-governor
Here are the links to the in depth articles:
Software glitch yields inaccurate election results
http://www.times-standard.com/...
New error found in county election results
http://www.times-standard.com/...
Every vote counts: Report, legislation seek more accountability for elections equipment manufacturers
http://www.times-standard.com/...
Thanks.