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State buying new voting machines at crucial time

With big election near, devices raise questions

By BRAD SCHRADE   The Tennesseean   26 November 2005
Tennessee election officials are about to dole out $25 million for a new generation of voting machines, but voter advocates say the state is not doing enough to ensure safeguards on the new technology.

The stakes are high, they say, because the decisions to be made in coming months will lock many counties and their thousands of voters into using these new machines for years to come. The change also comes as Tennessee prepares for major statewide elections next year, including races for governor and U.S. Senate, along with a full slate of local elections across the state.

"We all would have liked to have been a little ahead of where we are," said Brook Thompson, state election coordinator. "I do not think we're alone among states, but the difference is, we are not going to be easing into this new voting equipment. We're going to be having one of our biggest elections in history."

The changes come in response to the national outcry after the 2000 presidential election debacle in Florida. Washington earmarked money for states to fix their vote-counting problems by buying new voting equipment, developing statewide voter lists and making polling booths functional for disabled and visually impaired voters.

Expected as part of these changes is an influx of electronic voting machines. Critics have said these new machines need a voter-verified paper audit trail to make sure the technology works and to ensure that all votes are counted.

A small ad hoc group, called Gathering to Save Our Democracy, is speaking out on the issue in Middle Tennessee.

With paper-trail machines, "if the vote is close and a candidate contests the election, there's something to count," said Thelma Kidd of Nashville, who is involved with Gathering. "If you don't have that, you're trusting the machine completely to count. I think that's too much trust to be placed in machines that have been known to fail on this most important thing, our voting rights."

In Tennessee, some critics have accused the state of not taking this issue seriously enough as it prepares to release the millions in federal dollars. About 44 counties with outdated machines, such as those that use punch cards or levers and those that scan ballots at a central location, will be given money to replace their whole systems.

About 46 other counties will be given money to add at least one machine per precinct that can accommodate voters with physical disabilities. Seventeen in that group ? including Cheatham, Davidson, Dickson, Robertson, Rutherford and Williamson counties ? will be given money to modify their existing electronic machines to allow a rudimentary paper audit trail. Meanwhile, five counties' voting technology is already up to speed.

That doesn't satisfy advocates because the upgrades will not allow voters to see the paper trail before they cast their ballots. The paper document will be created only in the event of a recount or some other official reconstruction of the election results.

"The state ought to require it," said Steven Mulroy, a University of Memphis law professor who is part of a West Tennessee group pressing for the voter-verified paper audit feature. "Then you can go to the paper record to make sure the votes are accurate."

Thompson says the audit trail is an issue that is still being worked out by national election officials.

There are many issues to be considered before the state would require that such machines be used, Thompson said, such as ensuring voters' privacy on any audit paper trail.

There are also no federal standards guiding states' use of such machines.

Lowry says his group has an "honest disagreement" with the state over this issue, saying the issue could be overcome if there was a "political will" to do so.

Of the 44 counties that will be eligible for all new machines, Thompson said, some will choose a system that is tested and has a built-in paper trail. Some may move to an optical-scan ballot that is scanned at the polling site. That would allow voters and poll workers to identify problems with bad ballots right at the polling site and right after votes are cast, instead of waiting hours for thousands of ballots from across an entire county to be scanned after polls close.

"We're going to give counties a certain amount of latitude to choose," Thompson said.

In Davidson County, the election commission will soon face a choice. The county doesn't meet the state's criteria to have all of its 600 machines replaced. It expects to receive funds to purchase approximately 175 machines to serve disabled voters, and then officials will have to choose to upgrade the rest of the machines or replace them all, said Patricia Heim, a member of the county election commission.

Heim said the machines are older-model electronic voting machines, but many are two decades old and may become obsolete.

The election commission will decide whether it's worth it to upgrade the machines or whether it would be better to replace them. If the county chooses the latter route, it will require additional money from Metro because state funds will not cover the replacement cost.

"I love our machines," Heim said. "I would keep them in a heartbeat if I felt comfortable the technical support was going to be there. I've got to weigh the possibility that (voter-verified paper trails) may become a requirement at some point in the future. We've got to consider what's best for the taxpayer and the voting public." ?



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