Official who certified devices has no computer science training

DENVER — Some voting computers were certified for use in Colorado after only about 15 minutes of security checks by an official with no formal training in computer science, according to a newly released deposition.

The deposition intensified criticism of the systems that will be used in next month's elections. The state Democratic Party on Thursday urged voters to use absentee ballots to avoid using the computers. Paul Hultin, an attorney seeking to bar the use of the systems, said the November election is "headed for a train wreck."

The deposition by John Gardner Jr., an employee of the secretary of state's office, came in a lawsuit seeking to bar the use of voting computers made by four manufacturers. The suit was filed by 13 residents with various political affiliations and goes to trial in Denver District Court on Wednesday.

In his deposition, made public this week, Gardner said he has not been certified as an expert and confirmed he had no formal training in computer science, computer programming or evaluating the security of data processing systems.

He previously served as information technology chief for the El Paso County clerk, who oversees elections there.

Critics have said Gardner's security checks — which he said good about 15 minutes — were inadequate, and argued Gardner should have tried to hack the computers to see if they were safe.

Hultin said an expert would need only two minutes to reprogram and distort votes on one brand of the computers, and instructions for tampering with the system have been posted on the Internet.

Attorneys for Secretary of State Gigi Dennis have argued the state is protected against fraud by laws requiring a printout of each computer vote that can be checked by the voter and can be used for audits and recounts.

The computer systems in question are manufactured by Diebold Inc., Election Systems & Software Inc., Sequoia Voting Systems and Hart InterCivic and are used in some form by every county in the state.

If they were barred just two months before the election, "it would be impossible, frankly, for a number of these counties to conduct an election in a reasonable and fair manner," said deputy attorney general Maurice Knaizer, who represents Dennis in the case.

The judge could simply order Dennis to come up with additional security to prevent tampering, said Andy Efaw, one of the plaintiffs' attorneys.

Both candidates for secretary of state in the November election called for reviews of the systems.

Democrat Ken Gordon called on Dennis to "immediately hire competent staff and perform an adequate and thorough testing, as the law requires." Republican Mike Coffman said if elected, he would order a full review of all voting systems in Colorado.

Dennis declined to run for re-election.