From AP via the Los Angeles Times, State Panel Urges Ban on 15,000 Voting Machines:
California should ban the use of 15,000 touch-screen voting machines made by Diebold Election Systems from the Nov. 2 general election, an advisory panel to Secretary of State Kevin Shelley recommended today.
By an 8-0 vote, the state’s Voting Systems and Procedures Panel recommended that Shelley cease the use of the machines, saying that Texas-based Diebold has performed poorly in California and its machines malfunctioned in the state’s March 2 primary election, turning away many voters in San Diego County. …
[Chairman and CEO Walden W.] O’Dell said the … company remains confident the machines are safe and secure.
California panel members, however, disagreed. They cited a litany of alleged problems with Diebold in recent months, including its sale of machines to the four counties without federal and state certification, last-minute software fixes before the March election, installing uncertified software in voting machines in 17 counties and still lacking federal approval for its newest voting machines for the November election. They also expressed fears the systems are vulnerable to security breaches.
“In my view we need a clean slate with this vendor,” said panel member John Mott-Smith, chief of the state’s elections division. “Most of the big problems in the March election came with Diebold equipment. People did not get to vote because these things did not function and that’s not acceptable.”