A federal judge has upheld a directive that decertified
touch-screen voting machines and withheld future certification
until vendors of those systems could meet specific security
requirements.
The decision arose from a lawsuit, Benavidez v. Shelley, brought
by disability rights advocates and four California counties that
oppose California secretary of state Kevin Shelley's VVPAT
requirement and decertification orders for direct-recording
equipment (DRE) voting systems.
The plaintiffs argued that banning the systems would
disenfranchise visually or physically impaired voters.
In an order issued by the US District Court for the Central
District of California, Judge Florence-Marie Cooper wrote that "the
evidence does not support the conclusion that the elimination of
the DREs would have a discriminatory effect on the visually or
manually impaired".
Cooper also said that the secretary of state's "decision to
suspend the use of DREs pending improvement in their reliability is
certainly a rational one, designed to protect the voting rights of
the state's citizens."
Cindy Cohn, legal director for the Electronic Frontier
Foundation, called the court's decision a "landmark" ruling.
"The court said in clear, unambiguous terms that requiring a
paper trail for e-voting machines is consistent with the obligation
to assure the accuracy of election results," Cohn said. "That's an
enormous victory for secure elections."
The decision comes at a time when state and local elections
officials are scrambling to ensure that e-voting systems in
different states are reliable, accurate and can be secured from
tampering in time for the November election.
Dan Verton writes for IDG News
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