Bowen: Votes Should Not Disappear Into A Black Box

Spencer Critchley blogs live from the California Democratic party Convention in Sacramento:

Secretary of State candidate Debbie Bowen told CDP Convention delegates today that voting machine code should be "open source and public property", calling the behavior of voting machine maker Diebold "outrageous". She criticized Diebold for not designing its machines to create paper records, and for not granting access to the data recorded by their voting machines on the grounds of the need to protect confidential program code. And she expressed support for a lawsuit filed against current Secretary of State Bruce McPherson by non-profit group Voter Action. That suit charges that McPherson broke state law in choosing to re-certify Diebold voting machines. Voter Action says the laws requires a paper trail, and forbids the use of "interpreted code" in voting machines, such as Diebold uses.

Bowen also decried the potential disenfranchisement of 26% of California voters due to database errors, noting that many new voter registrations are rejected because of simple data entry problems, such as difficulty with spaces in a Latino voter's last name. She charged that the current Secretary of State, Republican Bruce McPherson, didn't seem to see the urgency in fixing the problem and wanted to wait until after the June primary to fix it.

"I'm running for two reasons: Florida and Ohio," said Bowen.

The centralized voter registration database is required under the federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA).

Bowen addressed the Computer & Internet caucus at the convention.

Secretary of State candidate Debra Bowen talks with a convention-goer.