Electronic voting needs to prove itself

Audit of machines may calm fears

 Published by news-press.com on June 30, 2004

A state audit of electronic voting machines would be useful in calming fears about these devices as the 2004 elections approach.

But given Florida’s ghastly experience in 2000, only a successful election experience will put the public mind truly at ease.

Meanwhile, any hope of developing a system with paper records of each vote as it’s cast for later recounting purposes seems doomed this year. There just isn’t enough time.

What appear to be minor glitches in some machines in Miami-Dade, Lee and several other counties have triggered a call for a statewide check-up to be sure the machines will work on election day. The call comes from the Miami-Dade Elections Reform Coalition, a group of people understandably nervous after the chaos there in recent elections.

Lee Elections Supervisor Sharon Harrington remains serene. She says she has no problem with the audit “if it will give people the confidence in these machines that we have,” and her view is shared by Collier Supervisor Jennifer Edwards.

Fifteen of Florida’s 67 counties, including Lee and Collier, use touch-screen machines. After the 2002 elections, an occasional problem was discovered in some machines when the records of the machines’ use was downloaded for storage.

The problem did not involve the records or tabulation of votes, and there was a backup system for accomplishing the task. Harrington says although the matter was reported to the voting machine company, it was not deemed important enough to be reported to the state elections office. It became public in Miami-Dade County only recently, creating what looks to us like an unnecessary panic.

It would have been better to report this matter to the state right away, get it out publicly with reassurances that fixes were being made, rather than trying to calm things down now with the first elections a couple of months away.

That makes the audit now a good idea for the sake of shoring up public confidence.

But at this stage we can forget the idea of having a personal paper receipt printed out at each voting machine either for recounting purposes or so people can confirm that they voted the way they intended to. Among other problems, it’s simply too late in the day to develop, test and certify such a new system, and to train election workers to use it, at least in Florida.

Had this been pursued earlier, it might have been possible to arrange for this year. The League of Women Voters, once a strong advocate of electronic voting, has recently changed its position under pressure from computer savvy members who are sure such systems are vulnerable to tampering or sabotage. At this late date, the league’s moves serves only to spread fear.

TO LEARN MORE
If you have questions about touch-screen voting or absentee ballots, call the elections offices in Lee County at 339-6300 or in Collier County at 774-8450.
Electronic voting is in place for this year, and it seems to have no serious problems. We need to give it a chance to prove itself.

The touch screen machines in use in Lee and Collier offer plenty of opportunity to check how you voted. If you’re confused or fear you may have misvoted, call for help and a poll worker will take you through it.

Harrington and Edwards are ready to explain this system to anyone who is unfamiliar with it and is willing to call for help prior to elections.

Other possibilities for the nervous are absentee ballots, which are still paper, or the increasingly popular early voting, possible several days before actual election day.

If this election is as close as predicted, we can expect plenty of trouble, and not just in Florida, and it will come whether we’re using paper ballots or touch screens or smoke signals.