Riverside County uses Sequoia touch-screens.
There is another alternative for those not trusting the touchscreens. Despite being poorly publicized, in Riverside County paper ballots were available to those visiting their polling place. While most questioning the accuracy and accountability of the electronic voting machines probably chose to vote absentee, over 150 registered voters in Riverside County asked for, and received a paper ballot.
How were their votes counted? In an act of disrespect that defies all logic and reason, Riverside County Registrar of Voters Barbara Dunmore decided that she would cast their ballots into the very machines they chose to avoid. As the ultimate insult, instead of tallying the paper ballot votes, she had her employees enter the votes into the Sequoia electronic voting machines.
The full article, by Riverside citizen Art Cassel, can be seen (with photo) here:
http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/1954/32791.html
Black Box Voting notes that the Riverside County mail-in voting system appears to be implemented improperly (though it may comply with California law, in which case, Calif. absentee balloting law would have to be considered defective). According to the information provided by Ms. Dunmore, voter privacy is eliminated in mail-in balloting because they do not use a privacy envelope. If we are incorrect on this point, please correct us.
Also, Ms. Dunmore seems to take pride in her decision to eliminate citizen oversight, prohibiting video cameras. At Black Box Voting, we have been able to videotape absentee vote counting in other jurisdictions -- and in those jurisdictions, voter privacy is kept intact.
Furthermore, Ms. Dunmore does nothing to address Cassel's observations about her bizarre (and apparently illegal) decision to enter paper ballots into touch-screens.
Copies of the Riverside directive to do this, and a copy of the California regulations are also linked in the above article.
Thanks to you folks in Riverside County, these problems are not going unnoticed.
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