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Public Forum on Diebold Voting Machines Today

The public meeting will be held from 2:30 to 6 this afternoon on the first floor of the board's office at 2925 Euclid Ave.

There are human error, technical and legislative issues yet to solve with Cuyahoga County's problem-prone electronic voting machines, but elections board director Jane Platten wants to heighten voter confidence -- so she's holding a show and tell event and the public is invited.

Platten, two members from the board's technology committee and assistant secretary of state Chris Nance will answer questions about past machine accuracy and security problems, as well as planned testing by the state. Voters can also get a hands-on trial of the touch screen voting system.

Concerns about the reliability of electronic voting machines -- particularly those made by Diebold of Stark County -- have been raised across the country. And recent problems with Diebold machines in California and Florida have added to the debate here.

Platten says she believes a combination of poll worker training and practice with the machines in upcoming municipal primaries will solve some previous difficulties.

Jane Platten: We do have a better understanding of the system since we first implemented it, and we also want to talk about some safeguards that we are implementing so that we do have an effective, efficient and transparent election that's also accurate.

In another wrinkle regarding the testing plan, Cuyahoga County commissioners have asked the state to postpone Ohio's March 4 primary to give the county more time to possibly scrap use of its Diebold machines which are now being sold under a new company name -- Premier.

Whenever the presidential primary occurs in Ohio, elections director Platten says one of the biggest obstacles may be something voting officials normally applaud... a high voter turnout.

Jane Platten: It's a finite number of devices that we have. So we are also encouraging folks to vote by absentee ballot.

Kymberli Hagelberg, 90.3.