Decertification 'fiasco' sends SJ to paper ballots

STOCKTON -- San Joaquin County voters will go back to casting ballots on paper Feb. 5 after five years of computer voting.

California Secretary of State Debra Bowen yanked certification of the Diebold machines in August. She recertified the machines, the Diebold AccuVote TSx system, but attached 40 special conditions before they can be used. One condition limits polling places to one touch-screen voting machine, which will provide access to people with visual disabilities.

"We're seeing Congress and the state Legislature introduce legislation to move back toward paper ballots," said Austin Erdman, the county's interim registrar of voters.

"And many people feel that with memory cards, you can't see or touch the vote, whereas with a piece of paper, you can look at it, audit it, touch it," he added. "But computers have actually been used to count election results since 1972. So I think it is going to be something where the public needs to understand a little more before people embrace electronic voting."

For now, the county has put its effort, and wallet, into returning to the paper process.

On Dec. 11, the Board of Supervisors approved $280,000 to purchase traditional voting booths designed for people in wheelchairs and to replace booths destroyed or given away when the county made the transition to computer voting.

In addition, supervisors approved a rent-to-own contract of as much as $400,035 with Premier Election Solutions Inc., a subsidiary of Diebold, for 100 ballot scanning machines and re- lated equipment.

Bee staff writer Inga Miller can be reached at imiller@modbee.com or 578-2324.