The Secure, Accurate and Fair Elections Act for California

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

Lift the Shroud of Secrecy from Electronic Voting Systems and Restore Confidence in Our Elections

By Paul Krekorian
Member
California State Assembly

On November 4, 2008, millions of Californians will go to their polling places to cast their votes using electronic voting machines. By the end of that evening, we will know who will take office as our next President. What we will not know that night – what we may never know with certainty – is whether our votes were in fact properly counted by those electronic voting machines.

After the debacle of the election of 2000 focused the nation’s attention on “hanging chads” in Florida, Congress passed the Help America Vote Act, which encouraged the wide use of electronic voting machines. Since then, corporate vendors of these machines, such as Diebold, have actively promoted them throughout the country. Many county registrars are investing heavily in this new technology in an effort to streamline the voting process, and to provide greater opportunity for some disabled citizens to vote independently.

Despite their effusive claims of security and accuracy, however, Diebold and most other manufacturers keep the actual workings of these machines a closely held secret. Although the public has an absolute right to observe every aspect of the process of counting paper ballots, the public is completely deprived of that right with regard to electronic voting.

That is why I’ve authored AB 852, the Secure, Accurate and Fair Elections (SAFE) Act of 2007. Simply stated, the SAFE Act would require public disclosure of the computer source code that runs our state’s voting machines. If a manufacturer refuses to disclose a voting system’s source code for public scrutiny, that system would not be certified for use in California elections – period. This important reform will ensure that voting rights advocates, computer scientists, the media, and any member of the public with an interest in technology and democracy, could analyze the source code and identify any potential errors or security risks.