Probe finds flaws in Pima elections system
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Pima County's election system needs significant changes to ensure its security in balloting, Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard said Friday.
Still, the shortcomings weren't enough to compel Goddard to recommend throwing out the results of last year's Regional Transportation Authority election.
Goddard's office investigated claims by the Pima County Democratic Party of election tampering.
Voters approved a 20-year regional transportation plan and a half-cent sales tax to fund it by an overwhelming margin in May 2006.
The Democrats accused the county elections office of improprieties in ballot security that suggest the tally may have been "flipped" to show the measures passing when they failed.
"We did not find any evidence that the computer technician at the center of this case manipulated this election," Goddard said in a statement prepared for delivery at an afternoon news conference Friday at the Arizona State Building, 400 W. Congress St.
The investigation cleared county Elections Division employee Bryan Crane of wrongdoing in printing out early ballot returns days before the May 16, 2006, election.
"He ran the reports to make sure the election equipment was reading ballots correctly," Goddard said.
Crane has run similar ballot tests for eight years.
The Attorney General's Office hired an elections analyst consultant, iBeta of Aurora, Colo., to check for signs of ballot tampering.
The company found none, but it recommended an overhaul of the Elections Division's security policies.
"During testing, it was discovered that the GEMS software exhibits fundamental security flaws that made definitive validation of data impossible due to the ease of data and log manipulation from outside the GEMS software itself," Goddard's opinion said.
GEMS, or Global Election Management System, is the brand name of the technical equipment and software manufactured by Diebold that the county uses for elections.
The issue of tampering arose with a Democratic Party lawsuit against the county claiming that the county elections security system was rife with improprieties. It said the GEMS electronic voting system lacked protections against ballot tampering by Elections Division staffers.
The lawsuit is pending in Pima County Superior Court.
Goddard said the consultant found that elections systems in 12 other counties in the state use equipment and software open to tampering.
"We're alerting all counties to be aware of this," Goddard said.
Bill Risner, the attorney for those who sued, said that while the investigation did not produce hard evidence of tampering in the May 16, 2006, election, it will be valuable in ensuring the integrity of the voting system by pointing out security flaws in most elections systems in the state.
Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry said Friday that changes are under way in the division to tighten security.
They will include placing security cameras in vote processing areas, establishing tighter procedures for data transmission between polling places and the county Elections Division's central computer system, and requiring the presence of more than a single elections staff worker when accessing computers and tabulating software before, during and after elections.
"Pima County Democratic Party vs. Pima County Board of Supervisors" will be the subject of a Motion to Dismiss/Motion for Summary Judgment hearing Monday, Sept . 17 at 2:30 in the Courtroom of Judge Michael Miller (Room 672), Pima County Superior Court, 110 W. Congress St. Anyone interested in election integrity is encouraged to attend. (from www.pimadems.org homepage)