E-Vote: California Counties Respond to Secretary of State's E-Voting Machine Decision

I'm so glad Sec. of State Bowen decertified these machines. The machines are not fraud-proof by any means.

At last a voice of reason! No one has taken into account the dedicated efforts of those who actually conduct our elections! We safeguard our voters' privacy and the accuracy of their votes (ballots). There are responsible election officials!

The Secretary of State has on record all of the mitigating security measures required by McPherson when he conditionally certified these voting systems last year. I would expect that Debra Bowen believes it is the intention of all State election officials to meet their obligation to provide these measures. It is impractical to believe that these security measures can be guaranteed to be met. While McIntosh states that all of the County elections officials "have always been, and will continue to be above reproach," I must remind him that Tony Anchundo, former ROV of Monterey County, has just been released from prison. Mr. Anchundo was held in the highest regard by other county officials and the citizens he served. We were saddened by his leaving. Should I not question his integrity while fulfilling the duties of his position? He certainly was challenged by his personal spending habits and borrowed from the taxpayers to meet his financial obligations. While I believe he may have carried out his official duties without compromising any elections, and probably did, the opportunity was certainly available for him to do so. I believe Anchundo was a sincere servant of the people. He is also a human being. Humans are not infallible. Machines are not infallible. The voting systems reviewed by Bowen have the potential to be manipuated by ALL insiders as well as outsiders. I am certain that all Elections officials across the nation take their oath very seriously. The critical question is not can they, or should they be trusted. I personally don't believe any one can speak for the integrity of another. It is a given that the insiders in every business are suspect to internal data compromise. Our Democracy demands checks and balances by the people. The voting systems have completely shut out the people from meaningful observing of the recording, casting and counting of their votes. You have the power to resore our Democracy to the people. Citizens are ready willing and able to cast and count their own votes. There are ballot marking devices available to assist those who cannot. Please stop defending yourselves and start defending our Democracy.

The findings of CA SoS Bowen's voting machine review speak for themselves. The flaws discovered could not be completely addressed by current or enhanced security measures. I repeat the flaws discovered in the banned voting machine hardware and software were of such a nature that they could not be defended against by any implementable security measures. Any other testing methodology would have discovered the same flaws. Period. County Election Officials that continue to use such flawed machines exhibit inexcusable willful ignorance. County Supervisors who employ such election officials should question the fitness of those election officials to securely run elections.