California researchers recently uncovered security vulnerabilities in many of the state's voting systems, a finding that has placed fresh attention on New Hampshire's voting machines.

One of the systems California researchers criticized as susceptible to election fraud is similar to New Hampshire's.

"We're talking about very real, objective, scientific data that gives us cause for real concern," said Nancy Tobi, chairwoman of the New Hampshire Fair Elections Committee, a citizen action group. Tobi, who favors hand counting, has asked the state Ballot Law Commission to convene to address the California findings.

New Hampshire uses so-called optical scan voting systems, which require voters to mark their ballots and then feed those ballots into a machine, which tallies the totals. The system is manufactured by the company Diebold, which also built some California systems. Although New Hampshire's system is similar to one used by California - California uses several types of machines - the software differs slightly.

Though the California tests exposed some vulnerability, security breaches to New Hampshire's system are unlikely, state officials said. New Hampshire's new voting system software was in place for the 2006 elections, and the machines worked well, they said.

"We recognize that under the right conditions, those machines can be tampered with," said Deputy Secretary of State David Scanlan. "But any election system that is used to receive and count ballots, whether it's simply taking a paper ballot and placing it in the ballot box, can be tampered with as well," Scanlan said. "We feel strongly that the way to deal with that is simply to put in place procedures for the use of those machines, to make sure they're properly treated as far as security conditions go."

In an effort to prevent ballot tampering, state lawmakers and voting officials are developing system standards, and state employees train local election officials on voting security. In New Hampshire, towns and cities are responsible for purchasing voting machines and overseeing elections.

There are numerous ways to enhance security, such as managing the machines' memory cards and making sure there's a clear "chain of custody" for each machine, said Assistant Secretary of State Anthony Stevens. State officials also emphasized the importance of vote "reconciliation," to ensure that all the voting numbers match up. During voting, machines are placed where they can be observed by voters.

"They're right out in the open," Scanlan said. "It would be difficult for someone to play with a machine while the polls are open."

California's study comes as the national Democratic Party begins a state-by-state study of potential voting problems in the run-up to the 2008 presidential election. Voting issues have been in the spotlight in recent years, following the disputed 2000 presidential vote in Florida. In 2000 and 2004, reports surfaced of voters being turned away from the polls. In 2002, lawmakers passed the federal Help America Vote Act, which authorized the government to spend billions of dollars to help states and counties update their voting systems.

Many counties have since adopted modern, touch-screen systems. But those machines quickly garnered critics. HAVA "pushed many counties into buying electronic systems that - as we've seen for some time . . . were not properly reviewed or tested," California Secretary of State Debra Bowen said in a statement this month.

New Hampshire chose optical scanners rather than touch-screen machines. Although concerns have been raised about all types of voting systems, optical scanners are generally considered more secure. Unlike the touch-screen machines, optical scanners have a paper trail, and the state retains "the actual ballots that people vote on to fall back on if there's any question," Scanlan said.

Before the 2006 election, the state switched to a so-called column-style ballot, where political parties are listed in a vertical column. Previously, ballots were "office-style," which meant that candidates were listed in order of office. The change meant that new Diebold software won approval from the Ballot Law Commission, despite reservations raised by Tobi and others. Optical scan machines are used by roughly 40 percent of voting stations in the nation, Stevens said.

Although state officials say the system has thus far been a success, the Diebold optical scanning machines are still at risk for tampering, computer scientists from California universities discovered. Bowen asked researchers to study three voting systems widely used in California, including optical scan and touch-screen machines.

The analysis exposed numerous design flaws and showed that the machines could be hacked, prompting Bowen to decertify - or block use of - several voting systems. The Diebold optical scan system was among those decertified, although Bowen said she would let county officials use the machines in the coming year if certain security precautions and auditing procedures were put in place. Bowen took a harsher line against some touch-screen systems, further restricting their use.

Single page