In the upcoming midterm congressional elections, a little more than
four months from now, a third of the nation will be casting ballots
on electronic voting machines. Tonight, new questions about the
extraordinary lack of security that results from the use of these
machines. Kitty Pilgrim reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KITTY PILGRIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In San Diego county Patty Newton
volunteered as an election worker in the June 6th primary. After her
training class for electronic voting machines, she got the surprise
of her life.
PATTI NEWTON, FORMER POLL WORKER: We were given slips of papers, had
them stamped by one of the staff members and we were directed to
drive across to the parking lot to pick up our voting machines and
take them home. We all felt an ominous kind of responsibility. It was
not something that we were told we would be doing.
PILGRIM: She stored the electronic voting machine here, on the floor
of her garage for seven days until the election. According to Vote
Trust USA, states with so-called sleepovers for electronics voting
machines are California, Iowa, Pennsylvania, and Florida, but certain
counties in other states do it also. Voter activists say while
millions have been spent buying the machines, counties don't have the
budgets for storing them or delivering them on election day.
SUSAN PYNCHON, FLORIDA FAIR ELECTIONS COALITION: Each jurisdiction
has been given money through the Help America Vote Act to purchase
the machines, but many of these jurisdictions are strapped when it
comes to trying to maintain them, already, and to have this some huge
delivery charge on top of that, that money comes directly out of the
local taxpayers' pockets.
PILGRIM: In Florida the Volusia County Department of Elections manual
makes it official, "Pick up the voting equipment and ballots at your
designated pick-up site prior to the day of the election. As soon as
the items are picked up, they must be stored in a secure place." But
on March 5th in Dallas County, a 14-pound electronic voting machine
was stolen from the home of an election judge. Today the Dallas
sheriff's office told us the voting machine has still not been
recovered.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PILGRIM: Now, voter activists say this simply reinforces the argument
that the only real way to make sure that the machines haven't been
tampered with is to have a paper trail record of the machine on
election day, so if there are any questions the machine can be
audited. Lou?
DOBBS: So often I say, what in the world are we thinking about in
this country?
PILGRIM: It's pretty mind-boggling when you start to look at this,
that these machines would be in private homes.
DOBBS: What are the companies that make and run and maintain these
machines saying?
PILGRIM: They basically made the sale and say they should be secured.
But, the definition of secured, as we have just proven is a little
bit nebulous.
DOBBS: I think nebulous is a very kind word for it. I mean, this is
enough to scare the dickens out of anybody.
PILGRIM: Yes
DOBBS: Kitty thank you very much, Kitty Pilgrim. |
