Reply #48: UT: Emery County Election Officer Rejects E-Voting Machines

[Wilms]

Emery County Election Officer Rejects E-Voting Machines

Fears Paper Jams, Memory Limitations, Loss of Votes

Mar 23, 2006

by Julie Rose

(KCPW News) The head of elections in Emery County is refusing to use the new Diebold electronic voting machines in the upcoming vote. County clerk Bruce Funk says he's tested the machines and has serious concerns about their security and reliability.

Funk says he received 40 electronic machines in December as part of a statewide contract. Once he and his staff began training with the machines, he noticed regular paper jams. Further investigation yielded discrepancies in available memory space on the computers. Worried, he called the nonprofit watchdog group Black Box Voting who sent well-known computer hacker Harri Hursti (Harry Hershey) to test the machines. The final report has not been released, but Funk says he's seen enough to convince him even old-fashioned, hand-counted ballots will be better than the new machines.

Emery County Officials disagree with the preliminary findings, and Funk says they have barred him from the room where the machines are stored. State Elections Officer Michael Cragun says every county clerk in the state has a contractual obligation to use the Diebold machines this election. That leaves the legality of Funk's decision in question.

snip

http://www.kcpw.org/article/203


also

snip

Herbert says that Funk violated the contract between Utah and Diebold by conducting tests on the machines without Diebold or state election representatives there to verify it.

snip

http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_3634490