SACRAMENTO (AP) The last of 11 counties banned in April from using electronic voting machines on Nov. 2 have won renewed rights to use their machines, Secretary of State Kevin Shelley announced Tuesday.
Shelley's office said Alameda and Plumas counties have agreed to tighter security conditions for using the machines, including making paper ballots available to those who ask for them.
Nine other counties agreed in recent weeks to the same conditions, including sharing their computer source code with independent experts for analysis, and increasing poll worker training on electronic voting machines.
Shelley decertified 28,000 touch-screen voting machines in 10 counties, and also those used for early voting in Los Angeles County, until they met specific conditions to prevent problems that occurred in the March 2 primary.
Several counties reported software problems that caused people to vote the wrong ballots and some polls to open late, prompting people to leave without voting.
Counties now recertified for electronic voting include San Bernardino, Riverside, Napa, Santa Clara, Tehama, Shasta, Orange, Merced, Plumas, Alameda and Los Angeles.
Shelley also banned the use of 14,000 electronic voting machines in San Diego, Solano, San Joaquin and Kern counties in November because their machines weren't federally approved for the March election. Shelley didn't provide those counties the option of being recertified.
There, approximately 2 million voters will have to use paper ballots.
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On the Net:
Secretary of State Kevin Shelley: http://www.ss.ca.gov
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