Voting bill to get a vote
A paper trail would back up electronic systems, officials say

By David Ingram     Winston-Salem Journal   18 July 2005 

Eight months have passed since North Carolina drew national attention for problems with its voting system, such as the loss of 4,438 votes in Carteret County because of a lack of memory in an electronic voting machine.

In that time, the General Assembly has studied the errors, debated solutions and drawn up proposals to prevent future errors. It has not yet put any of those proposals into action.

Slowly, the legislative and administrative wheels are beginning to turn.

A committee of the N.C. Senate could vote as early as this week on a bill that would require a paper trail for all ballots. Meanwhile, state elections officials are drawing up a bid proposal for new voting equipment, after a federal agency gave the public a long-awaited peek at new voting guidelines.

"We're ready to go," said state Sen. Ellie Kinnaird, D-Orange, the sponsor of the paper-trail bill.

The Senate has canceled all committee meetings that aren't related to the budget, but the paper-trail bill would affect the budget, and Kinnaird said that she expects a vote this week. She and other supporters are asking the state to pay $20 million for the new equipment, in addition to $53 million from the federal government.

"They sort of gulp when we mention that," Kinnaird said of talks with budget negotiators. "Maybe there's another 20 sitting around some place. I think that's what we'll have to hope for."

A legislative committee conducted a study of the state's voting equipment last winter, in part because of problems in Carteret County and other counties. They tested machines and heard from experts before finally settling on a bill that Kinnaird introduced in February.

The bill has gone through 27 versions since then, she said. The main goal remains the same: to require that all voting machines have a paper trail and that voters can check that trail before their votes are cast.

The machines in Carteret County had no paper trail, and the 4,438 votes were not retrievable.

Last week, the county elections board voted not to use the machines again and to rent machines for this fall's municipal elections at a cost as high as $45,000.

"It has completely damaged the confidence of the public in Carteret County about the voting system in general," said Ed Pond, the chairman of the elections board in Carteret County. "We knew that was latent in the community. We also knew that people would be very turned off by the prospect of using that equipment again."

The lost votes contributed to confusion in two statewide races. One of them, for state schools superintendent, is still in dispute and is the subject of a legislative inquiry.

Pond said that Carteret County would buy new voting machines, but state election officials have imposed a moratorium on purchases until after state and federal guidelines are clear. The moratorium has affected other counties, too, including Forsyth.

"We thought there would be guidance about new systems," Pond said. "That's not materialized, and we can't wait any longer."

But the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, a federal agency examining voting equipment, released its proposed guidelines three weeks ago for a 90-day comment period. The guidelines contained few surprises, and they allowed the state to begin drafting its bid proposal, said Gary Bartlett, the executive director of the State Board of Elections.

The board will release the bid when Kinnaird's bill is signed into law, he said.

"When the General Assembly passes that, we'll be ready to go," Bartlett said.

Still, voters won't have the chance to use new machines in this fall's municipal elections, a full year after the state's major voting errors.