Florida Secretary of State Wants to Restrict Testing of Voting Machines

After Diebold, the largest manufacturer of voting machines, tried to stop Leon County Supervisor of Elections, Ion Sancho, from independently testing Diebold equipment, Florida Secretary of State, Sue Cobb (see photo), has taken up Diebold's cause. The Secretary of State's office is trying to enact rules that would require county election supervisors to get permission from Tallahassee before testing voting equipment for security problems and notify the manufacturer before doing any testing.

"The state should not be so concerned about protecting the voting companies from embarrassment when their equipment has security vulnerabilities," Sanco said in June 9

Earlier testing by Sancho - testing that was opposed by both Diebold and state election officials - revealed important security flaws.