SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The last of 11 California counties banned in April from using electronic voting machines on Nov. 2 have won renewed rights to use their machines, Secretary of State Kevin Shelley (search) said Tuesday.
Shelley's office said Alameda and Plumas counties have agreed to tighter security conditions for using the machines, including making paper ballots available to those who request them.
Nine other counties agreed in recent weeks to the same conditions, including sharing their computer source code with independent experts for analysis, and increasing poll worker training on electronic voting machines.
Several counties reported software problems that caused people to vote the wrong ballots and some polls to open late, prompting people to leave without voting.
Shelley also banned the use of 14,000 electronic voting machines in San Diego, Solano, San Joaquin and Kern counties in November because their machines weren't federally approved for the March election. Shelley didn't provide those counties the option of being recertified.
There, approximately 2 million voters will have to use paper ballots.
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