S.D. voting machines not linked to probe

By Carson Walker, Associated Press Writer | Thursday, November 02, 2006

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SIOUX FALLS — South Dakota’s new electronic voting machines were not made by a company being investigated for possible ties to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Secretary of State Chris Nelson said.

Sequoia Voting Systems of Oakland, Calif., said the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States was conducting a formal inquiry into it and its parent company.

The inquiry was focusing on last year’s acquisition of Sequoia by Boca Raton, Fla.-based Smartmatic, which is owned by three Venezuelans, and whether Chavez’s leftist government has any influence over their operations.

Sequoia denies any connection to Chavez and said it wants the inquiry to dispel the rumors.

Chavez is a longtime foe of the Bush administration.

Nelson said the machines in question are not the ones used in South Dakota.

Sequoia’s touch-screen machines record and tally votes electronically. But South Dakota’s AutoMARK machines merely mark a paper ballot that people review after voting to ensure its accuracy, then put in the ballot box, Nelson said.

Congress in 2002 passed a mandate that requires each polling place to have at least one touch-screen machine so people with visual or other disabilities can cast their own ballot in secret.

Nelson said that when he considered the options, he chose a system that creates a paper ballot to ensure credibility, though some states have gone entirely high-tech.

“Would it have been enticing to do away with paper and go electronic? Yes,” he said. “But it’s not as safe and secure as the route we have gone.”

His top concern had been maintaining the integrity of the election process, Nelson said. If there are any questions, election boards can review the ballots manually.

“We want to make sure people are able to cast their vote as they intend and that their vote is counted as they intend,” he said.

Nelson said he also wanted machines that poll workers could easily set up and use.

Tuesday will be the first general election in which all 658 machines will be used. They were tested in local elections in Sioux Falls and Madison last spring and were available for statewide use in the June primary election.

Besides the touch-screen devices, the $4.6 million project also included ballot counting machines for 53 of the state’s 66 counties. The federal government paid 95 percent of the cost and counties paid for the rest, Nelson said.

In 11 counties, the machines allow Lakota-speaking voters to hear an interpretation of each item on the ballot, then cast their vote.

“That was a very difficult project to get all of the Lakota translated and get it incorporated on the machines,” Nelson said.

Though each polling place has a machine, voters still can have someone cast their ballot for them, he said.

The South Dakota Democratic Party plans to monitor election results to make sure the machines work well, Donald Carr, the party’s communication director, said.

“The secretary of state and board of elections have spent the time to make sure there are no problems, but we’ll be watching closely for accuracy and accountability,” he said.

Nelson said feedback about the machines has been generally positive.

Keith Bundy of Madison has been blind since birth and said that for the first time, he has been able to cast his own ballot.

Bundy, 49, is on the advisory board for South Dakota Service to the Blind and Visually Impaired. He said he has been voting since he was 18 but has had his wife or someone else he trusts fill out the ballot for him, until now.

“There’s just a feeling of independence and self confidence that comes when you know you’ve cast your own vote using the secret ballot system that our country has used since the Constitution was established. And I’ve never enjoyed that independence and self confidence until this year,” Bundy said.