Beverly Hills Files Lawsuit Claiming Electronic Voting System Could Lead To Inaccurate Voting

BEVERLY HILLS (CBSLA) – The City of Beverly Hills has filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court Thursday over concerns regarding Los Angeles County's new VSAP (Voting Solutions for All People) touchscreen electronic voting system.

The lawsuit implies that the new system may lead to inaccurate voting at vote centers countywide due to only four candidates appearing on the screen at a time and voters potentially casting their vote without seeing all options.

According to the city, only four candidates appear on the first screen of the ballot marking device and to view additional candidates, the voter must select the "More" button.

The suit claims that the voter might press the "Next" button, accidentally skipping the rest of the candidates.

"We are deeply troubled that voters will be disenfranchised by the new VSAP system," said Beverly Hills City Attorney Laurence S. Wiener.  "All candidates should be presented in an equitable and transparent way to the voters.  As the system is currently designed, a voter may not realize they are bypassing additional candidates.  We believe this issue can be easily resolved."

As a solution, the suit asks that L.A. County gray out the "Next" button, disabling it until the voter has moved to the last page of candidates and has viewed all options.

The City also asked that instructions be included on the first screen indicating there may be additional candidates than the first four names listed and that voters must click the "More" button to view all choices.