That’s the assessment of Yolo County Registrar of Voters Freddie Oakley, in regards to counties across California getting new voting machines in place in time for the June 6 primary election.

On today’s newsmagazine edition of The California Report (click here for broadcast times), I take a look at the challenge facing county elections officials, and my colleague Scott Shafer follows up by interviewing Secretary of State Bruce McPherson.

The problem, in a nutshell, lies in compliance with two laws that kicked in on January 1– the federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA), which includes a provision for at least one machine per polling place that allows disabled voters to vote by themselves; and the new state law requiring all electronic “touch screen” machines to produce a paper record of every vote cast.

As we’ve reported earlier this week, 53 counties still have no machines that satisfy both new laws. And while almost every voting machine still in limbo has completed federal testing and could pass muster from state officials as soon as early March, there’s still the issue of counties getting these machines, testing them, and training poll workers.

My story profiles three counties as examples of why the issue is so confusing:

* San Diego: Registrars in other counties kept telling me over the last couple of weeks that no one has it as bad as their colleague in San Diego, Registrar Mikel Haas. Haas must conduct the state’s first federal election of 2006 on April 11– a special election in the 50th Congressional District to replace former U.S. Representative Randy “Duke” Cunningham. San Diego hopes to use the latest touch screen machine from Diebold Elections Systems, and the machines are even sitting in a warehouse across town. The device has been modified to produce a paper record, but the machine (the Diebold TSx) was sent back for more federal testing in December. However, there is word a decision on the machine could come soon. That would probably help Haas, who has to begin sending out absentee ballots next month. But he says it will be very tight.

* Alameda County: Registrar Elaine Ginnold is aking the Legislature to allow the county to vote by mail on June 6. Alameda’s touch screen machines (made by Diebold) do not produce a paper trail, and the county was in the process of upgrading to the same machines San Diego will use. But Alameda was not as far along in the process. Several lawmakers say they doubt urgency legislation for ” mail election” will be approved, and Ginnold says the county may then ask the courts to intervene.

Worst case scenario, I asked her? “We have paper ballots at the polls.” And what about the HAVA disabled access requirements, I asked? “We get sued,” she said. “That’s the worst case. We get sued by the federal government.”

* Yolo County: Until now, the rural county used punch card machines, the kind of machines which were the focus of criticism in Florida in 2000. Registrar Freddie Oakley has now decided to use a device called the VotePad, which is nothing more than a transparent plastic sleeve that fits over a paper ballot. It has cut-outs and tactile dots to help the blind read the ballot and vote. But the VotePad has not been certified for use. Oakley met with Secretary McPherson earlier this week, and McPherson says he will try to help expedite some sort of review of the device– although Oakley says she has already begun the process of buying the product.