California finds fault with another brand of electronic voting machine

We wrote last week about Diebold's new legal problems from its untrustworthy voting machines. Well, on Christmas Eve, California decided that machines made by Diebold's competitor, ES&S, also need serious repairs before they can be certified, because the machines improperly reporting turnout figures and recording votes incorrectly. ES&S is the largest manufacturer of voting machines in the US, and it counts nearly 60% of all votes. Like the Diebold machines, ES&S machines do not create any paper audit trail, so there is no way to verify that its counts are correct, even though these machines are used in most US elections.

Given the many questionable facts associated with electronic voting machines, and the fact that many security experts consider these machines to be fundamentally flawed, this trend is only going to continue until someone in government (maybe Eliot Spitzer?) steps in and blows the whistle. Why is California out in front on this one? Perhaps because they have more high-tech workers and companies who know how easy it is to make computers do what they want -- and not necessarily what the user wants.

Technorati Tags: Voting Machines, e-Voting, ES&S, Security, Marketing, Diebold