Diebold votes 'yes' for e-voting system

Using a touch screen to cast a ballot may seem like intimidating, futuristic technology, but a company hoping to land a contract for an electronic voting system for Utah has had the technology in use elsewhere for a few years.

Moreover, the company is proud of its reliability, security, speed and flexibility.

"Touch-screen voting technology has been used for several years in hundreds of elections without a single factual report of a security concern," Eric C. Evans, president and chief operating officer of Ohio-based Diebold, said Friday at a breakfast meeting of the Salt Lake Chamber.

Diebold devices have been used for five years in Brazil, and statewide implementations have occurred in Georgia, Maryland, Arizona and Alaska. The Utah Voting Equipment Selection Committee is considering two bids for new electronic voting machines.

"Some have urged Utah to consider using older technology, but we believe Utah should look to the future and adopt a system that is unparalleled in safety and accuracy," Evans said. "It's an investment designed to last for the next 20 years, so this is a big decision for Utah."

Diebold Election Systems Inc. was a natural venture for Diebold, whose history features tons of technology, electronic security, ATM and "campus card" systems — what Evans called "protecting transactions of value." It has more than 900 customers in 26 states, with about 20,000 precincts using touch-screen or optical-scan devices, and 100 Canadian customers.

In Brazil, the company has more than 200,000 terminals in place to help the country's 109 million people during compulsory-voting elections. Results have been tallied in as little as four hours after the polls closed, he said.

Georgia used more than 22,000 touch-screen terminals for the November 2002 election. "Georgia did a statewide implementation of Diebold voting equipment two years ago and since that time has run hundreds of error-free elections on our equipment," Evans said.

And during the recent election, the equipment worked "extremely well" in both voting and tabulation phases, he added.

"All of this occurred against the backdrop of the biggest voter turnout in U.S. history and under the close scrutiny of computer scientists and political academics. The systems worked well, and much like the buildup to the Y2K situation a few years ago, the predicted meltdown did not occur," he said.