Require paper trail for votes

By Des Moines REGISTER EDITORIAL BOARD

April 8, 2005

Iowa is about to launch a $17.5 million overhaul of voting machinery that will change the way many voters cast ballots in future elections. This is a historic change, so we should get it right. A bill passed by the Iowa Senate is designed to assure that. The House should follow suit.

Senate File 351, passed 48-0, by the Senate would require that voters who use touch-screen voting machines be able to examine a paper version of their ballot. That allows the voter to confirm that votes have been correctly cast, and it creates a paper trail for auditors to use in a recount.

Iowa counties, which now use a variety of voting machines, will soon be receiving federal grants through the secretary of state's office to purchase new equipment to comply with the federal Help America Vote Act by January 2006.

Most counties now use paper ballots that are fed into optical-character readers, which leave a paper trail and satisfy requirements of the federal law. Some counties, however, must upgrade equipment and will likely consider touch-screen voting. Ultimately, touch screens will be the accepted standard as older machines are replaced.

One downfall of touch-screen voting machines has been the lack of a paper trail. Although some manufacturers insisted they couldn't come up with a paper receipt, that's nonsense, Secretary of State Chet Culver told lawmakers this week. In fact, such machines are already on the market.

By giving the paper-trail requirement the force of law, the Legislature will prevent manufacturers from giving phony excuses.