HOLLISTER
California Secretary of State Debra Bowen visited the San Benito County Elections Department today, she said, to put faces to the names she has heard on so many conference calls.
“We work together a lot and we do a lot by phone, and it’s great to actually meet the people you dealing with over the telephone,” Bowen told the Free Lance at the San Benito County Courthouse.
Bowen was given a tour of the courts department, the hall of records and the courtroom that will serve as local headquarters for the November election. County Clerk Joe Paul Gonzalez and Assistant Clerk Recorder Lillian Perreira gave the tour.
Much like Gonzalez, Bowen doesn’t have much concern about the elections in regards to security or voter fraud. She does feel, however, that lines may become troublesome at certain precincts.
“I’m concerned in some places that the line to sign in to vote might be long. So we’re trying to find ways that we can speed up that line (such as) identifying which page the person signs on while they are standing in line, so we don’t take that time … because there is only one sign-in book.”
Another concern is not having enough ballots for voters, but she noted that each county has is its own contingency plan.
“I know the San Benito County has an approved plan in place,” Bowen said.
She also said that a common fix for this problem is just to order ballots in large amounts.
Going into this election, voters can’t use electronic voting but they will use an optical scan system approved by the state. Bowen said electronic voting isn’t available because “the touch screen systems really weren’t designed with security in mind.”
For it to be a viable option in the future, she said, “I think that we would need to have the manufacturers do a re-design of how their systems work.”
Accuracy also has been a problem for electronic systems.
“We’ve seen issues arise in West Virginia and Texas about the calibration of the touch screens and complaints that when people touched one thing it either didn’t light up at all or lit up the wrong candidate. That is very disconcerting for voters. This way the voter can be certain they made the choice.”
Either way, Bowen approves of the current voting system.
“I think the optical scan system that San Benito uses is the best of both worlds, because you don’t have to hand count.”
