quote:


An Alameda County judge has voided election results for a failed 2004 Berkeley medical marijuana measure, ordering it returned to the ballot next year because county election officials failed to hand over data from voting machines, attorneys in the case said Thursday.

Superior Court Judge Winifred Smith also said county officials should pay attorneys' fees and reimburse a medical marijuana group more than $22,000 for the costs it incurred during a disputed recount shortly after the November 2004 election.

In her ruling Tuesday, Smith said county officials had failed to retrieve backup data from electronic voting machines, logs of activity on the machines and other records as she had specifically ordered.

Instead, the county ignored the request and returned the devices to their manufacturer, Diebold Election Systems, after the measure's advocates had sued the county seeking access to the data, the judge said.

"Why the county did so is anybody's guess," the judge wrote. "But the result is absolutely certain: The information on those machines is lost completely."

Smith ordered the Berkeley measure returned to the ballot in November 2008 but said she first wanted to review the exact text of it. By Oct. 19, city officials must provide the court with any minor changes to the measure.

"Local election officials have been trying to reassure the public that their own oversight will protect the integrity of the ballot," said Gregory Luke, an attorney for Americans for Safe Access, a medical marijuana advocacy group that sued the county shortly after the election.

"Now we see that not only are the machines vulnerable, but some election officials cannot be counted on to protect the vote."