WV STICKS WITH ELECTRONIC VOTING MACHINES

(01/08/2008)

West Virginia Secretary of State's office is standing firm in its support of electronic voting machines, despite security concerns raised by other states. Officials in Colorado and Ohio are removing the machines, declaring them unfit for legitimate elections. Thirty-four West Virginia counties use Election Systems and Software's, iVotronic touch-screen machines, including Calhoun. The government got their foot in the door with the machines, requiring them to at least be used in each precinct for handicapped voters. Deputy Secretary of State Sarah Bailey says the agency is comfortable moving forward with the iVotronic system. Secretary of State Betty Ireland led the effort to convince counties to go with the system. Researchers in Ohio and Colorado found the iVotronic machines could be corrupted with magnets or Treos and other similar handheld devices. A number of states are going back to paper ballots. During the last election cycle, most of the problems were related to software. A number of corrections took place. Calhoun Clerk Richard Kirby said he was unable to detect any serious problems with the system during the past election, although he spent a number of hours to make sure the machines were operating properly. He reported most voters liked the touch screen computer.

Hur Herald ®from Sunny Cal The information on these pages, to the extent the law allows, remains the exclusive property of Bob Weaver and Dianne Weaver The Hur Herald. All information may be freely used but must not be sold or used in any type of commercial endeavor, or used on any web site without the express permission of the owners ©Bob and Dianne Weaver, The Hur Herald, 1999, 2000, 2001