Reply #14: part of article here

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Secretary of State Bruce McPherson (pictured at right) today announced his decision to certify with conditions the Diebold TSX and Optical Scan (OS) voting systems for use in California’s 2006 elections. The decision comes after months of thorough review of both voting systems, their compliance with both state and federal laws and the completion of an additional security analysis by independent testers from computer labs at the University of California, Berkeley.

“As the State’s chief elections official, the decision to certify voting systems is a very serious responsibility, and a number of factors must be carefully weighed before I determine whether to grant certification,” said Secretary McPherson. “This is precisely why I created 10 strict standards that must be met for a voting system to be certified, making California’s process the most stringent in the nation. We have applied these standards and after rigorous scrutiny, I have determined that these Diebold systems can be used for the 2006 elections.”

Mikel Haas, San Diego County Registrar of Voters said, “I appreciate Secretary McPherson’s leadership in establishing what must be the most comprehensive and rigorous certification process in the nation. To comply with new federal and state laws regarding elections, we need a new and different set of tools and Secretary McPherson made sure we got those tools.” San Diego is home to California’s first federal election of 2006, a special congressional vacancy election to be held in April.
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