There is word from the office of Secretary of State Bruce McPherson that every major manufacturer of California’s voting machines, except for one, has cleared federal requirements for its systems and now heads into testing for state approval.

As you may remember, McPherson told these voting machine vendors that they had until yesterday to submit all documents and proof of federal certification if any of those machines were to be cleared for use in the June 6 primary.

Currently, 53 of California’s 58 counties are without a system okayed on both the federal and state level.

On Tuesday, McPherson’s office said it received a full application from Sequoia Voting Systems, which has plans to supply its machines to as many as 20 counties. Completed applications and federal testing were also reportedly received from Elections Systems & Software (ES&S) and Hart InterCivic. The theory is that machines from these 3 companies would now undergo state testing and public hearings. State elections officials are shooting for full certification of the machines by early March, which they believe will allow counties enough time to get these systems in place.

That opinion, however, is not unanimously shared by elections officials in many counties… I’ll have more on that later this week on The California Report.

You’ll notice one well-known voting machine company not on the above list: Diebold Elections Systems, whose machines were sent back for more federal testing by McPherson in late December. Those Diebold machines… both electronic touchscreen and optical scan systems… are being counted on in 17 counties.

[2:45 P.M.– A spokesperson for Diebold believes it should be made clear that the company did not miss the Secretary’s deadline. However, it is true that McPherson has demanded further federal testing before the state will certify Diebold’s machines.]