Measure addresses vote-counting risks

Metropolitan King County Council members, responding to new reports about security risks in computerized vote-counting, decided Monday to require that any new election equipment undergo expert security review as well as testing for reliability.

Skeptical that the county elections office would be able to test new high-speed vote tabulators in time for the 2008 presidential election, the council also expressed its preference that the first countywide all-mail election be conducted with existing equipment.

The motion left the door open for King County Executive Ron Sims to buy new tabulators and tallying software from Diebold Election Systems — but only under strict new conditions. The new equipment isn't yet certified by federal authorities and hasn't been used in any election in the United States.

Sims' representatives and his fellow Democrats on the council — who are committed to all-mail voting next year despite Republican opposition — spent several hours privately discussing how the ordinance should address security concerns raised by two new reports, one commissioned by the council, the other by the California secretary of state.

Computer-security experts Douglas W. Jones and Eric Lazarus, hired by the council, recommended the county delay buying new tabulators until after the 2008 election. "This alternative would reduce risk of election problems since familiar technology would be used rather than new and untried technology," the consultants wrote.

Jones and Lazarus said bringing new equipment on line in a presidential-election year when King County Elections also is moving to a new building and closing most polls in favor of mail voting "is a challenge that does not conform to best-practice norms."

Their recommendations echoed those of the King County Citizens' Elections Oversight Committee, which said earlier this month that buying new equipment shortly before a presidential election "is the highest risk option."

In calling for a third-party security review of any new equipment, the council cited California's "top-to-bottom" review of voting systems released Friday, which found that systems sold by three of the largest manufacturers, Diebold, Hart InterCivic and Sequoia Voting Systems, could be hacked and election results tampered with.

"As the California review indicated, the security of the existing system, as well as a new system, is very suspect," said Councilmember Larry Phillips, D-Seattle. "What the council accomplished today is to ensure that security will be our top issue for any system."

The motion passed 5-2 along party lines.

Members of both parties have cited a number of reasons to support or oppose vote-by-mail elections, but some political insiders say the real issue is that it will improve Democratic candidates' chances of getting elected in a Democratic-leaning county.

Council members are still weighing a separate motion to ask the Legislature next year for authority to "audit" the accuracy of electronic vote counts by hand-counting a significant number of ballots — possibly three to 10 percent of the ballots, depending on how close the vote is.

Elections Director Sherril Huff said her office supports more rigorous audits and other security measures proposed by the County Council.

But she said the existing mail-vote-counting database, which the council would keep through the 2008 election, is near capacity and must be replaced.

"There's a great deal of risk associated with that," she said. "There's also a tremendous amount of additional work," she said, to keep the current system running.

Keith Ervin: 206-464-2105 or kervin@seattletimes.com