THE COUNT: BALLOT SECURITY TO BE WATCHED.

Byline: TROY ANDERSON Staff Writer

Despite predictions of low turnout for today's election, officials are bracing for potential problems related to new voting equipment and heightened scrutiny over the integrity of voting systems.

Hundreds of election watchdogs, volunteers with video cameras, lawyers and Justice Department observers are expected to be at the polls to guard against tampering, fraud and voter discrimination in an election that will decide who controls Congress.

With concerns nationwide that computer hackers could alter election outcomes and leave little or no evidence, Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder Conny McCormack said she wants to assure voters that security measures have been implemented to ensure ballots are accurately counted.

``Every ballot cast in California has a paper ballot attached to it,'' McCormack said. ``All the touch-screen voting machines across California are now equipped with paper ballots.

``And our InkaVote Plus system in Los Angeles County is a paper ballot voting system. So the concerns nationwide were more based on states that don't have paper backups. In California, this is the first year we've had that.''

New equipment

David Dill, a computer science professor at Stanford University and founder of the Verified Voting Foundation, said many counties are using new voting equipment that could break down or cause confusion among voters and poll workers.

And although he's pleased that California requires paper audit trails of votes cast on electronic voting machines, he's still concerned about the accuracy of the computerized tabulation systems.

``I don't know where the problems are going to be, but I know there are going to be problems,'' he said. ``The question is, how nasty are they going to be?''

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Bruce McPherson predicted about 55 percent of the state's 15.8 million registered voters will vote today.

The previous gubernatorial election in 2002 set a record low for turnout at 50.5 percent, but McPherson said he was encouraged that 500,000 more people have registered since then.

``This tells me that more citizens are becoming involved in the electoral process and are exercising their rights to register and vote,'' McPherson said.

He also predicted that of those votes cast, about 44 percent will be absentee.

Statewide, election officials had issued about 5.1 million absentee ballots, and of those at least 1.5 million had been returned.

McCormack said she has sent out 689,000 absentee ballots, the second-highest total after the 2004 presidential election. So far, 373,000 absentee ballots have been returned.

``Absentees are flooding in here,'' McCormack said.

Late count expected

As a result of the large number of absentee ballots yet to be received, McCormack said, roughly 10 percent of the vote probably won't be counted for several days, potentially impacting close statewide contests.

McCormack said she was successful in recruiting 25,000 poll workers to staff 5,028 precincts and has 800 roaming troubleshooters to help deliver supplies and address equipment malfunctions.

Checks for errors

The county's new $25 million optical scan paper-based voting system includes two new features: a ballot reader that checks for errors and an audio ballot booth to assist disabled and non-English speaking voters.

McCormack noted that most of the concerns raised by election watchdog groups in recent months relate to electronic voting machines. As of Sunday, 23,459 people had cast votes on Diebold touch-screen voting machines at 17 locations throughout the county.

With regard to concerns about the tabulators the county uses to count ballots, McCormack said all voting equipment in the state is required to have locks and seals.

``If anyone attempts to tamper with voting equipment, the color of the seal changes to void and any piece of equipment that might be tampered with is removed,'' McCormack said.

Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation, said a lot of improvements have been made in California election security in the past few years, including voter-verified paper trails and a law that strengthens the requirement that election results be publicly audited.

``Because we have those two reforms in California, I think the ballots in our state will be far more secure than maybe in other states where electronic voting is being used,'' Alexander said.

Staff Writer Harrison Sheppard contributed to this report.

troy.anderson(at)dailynews.com

[phone]

CAPTION(S):

3 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- color) Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder Conny McCormack oversees the preparation of absentee ballots for counting at the Registrar- Recorder's Office in Norwalk on Monday.

Scott Smeltzer/Staff Photographer

(2 -- 3 -- color) GOVERNOR Arnold Schwarzenegger, right, seeks another term as California's chief executive against Democratic challenger Phil Angelides, left.

Box:

VOTE TODAY