Voting-machine company rep says system safe

By KEVIN KOELLING    Perry County News   12 December 2005

Preparations for special election in Cannelton under way; city residents to vote yea or nay on elected school board

TELL CITY - Representatives of the company equipping Perry County for its first election using new electronic voting machines said Wednesday numerous safeguards are in place to ensure results reflect the will of the people.

The new machines, to be used county-wide in regular elections later in the year, will get a test run among Cannelton voters when that city goes to the polls Jan. 18 to determine if their school board will become an elected body. County Clerk Debra Weatherholt is working to provide advertising and voter education in preparation for that election.

Punch-card ballots, which Weatherholt said previously have never caused problems in Perry County, had to be replaced as a result of federal legislation enacted after the national election of 2000.

Among other things, the Help America Vote Act of 2002 required the replacement of a variety of existing voting systems with electronic systems. That requirement, in turn, spawned the creation of Internet-based organizations concerned about reliability and security issues that could arise with the use of such systems.

Those groups include http://www.verifiedvoting.org , http://www.blackboxvoting.org and http://www.votersunite.org , the first of which ?champions reliable and publicly verifiable elections in the United States,? according to its founders. Blackboxvoting bills itself as ?the official consumer protection group for elections, funded by citizen donations.? Similarly, VotersUnite claims it focuses on distributing well-researched information to election and elected officials, the media and the public.

Local Safeguards

As Bill Haas, director of customer service for MicroVote General Corp., transferred options for the Jan. 18 special election in Cannelton from a laptop computer into a voting machine in a tiny back room in the county courthouse Wednesday, Steve Shamo explained barriers to election fraud.

?The first is it's highly illegal and will get you 10 years in prison,? the customer-service and sales representative said.

Anyone attempting to alter votes would need full and open access to and understanding of the machines' programming code, physical access to all of the equipment and fairly precise knowledge of how many people will vote, Shamo added.

In addition, software and firmware for the machines is ?escrowed? in two separate locations, Shamo said, in case an election is called into question, and manipulation of the machines' source code is suspected. ?If there's a problem, there would be a difference in the source codes,? he said.

State officials would gain access to those codes only if a major recount becomes necessary or if MicroVote goes out of business, he added.

?We set the standard 20 years ago,? Shamo said. ?We escrowed when it wasn't required.?

He said, also, the electronic systems ?have software behind the scenes, recording everything? in case questions arise.

Multiple Chances to See Options

Cannelton voters will be able to read through four options for school-board composition on separate computer-screen ?pages,? then go to another page to their choice. Simplified, their choices include retaining the present appointment system or changing to an elected three- or five-member makeup. (See ?On the Ballot? below.)

Before they reach the voting booths, they'll have three other opportunities to review the options. The choices appear in a legal advertisement in this edition of The News. They'll also be distributed door-to-door by the Cannelton Democrat Committee and will be available in print-outs at the city's community center, where voting will occur for voters to read before they enter the booths.

Voters who feel they're sufficiently prepared can simply enter the booth and go to the screen where they'll make their choice, Shamo noted.

Weatherholt said it appears the special election will cost much less than originally anticipated. The county's contract with MicroVote requires the company ?to pick up any small elections? that might be necessary in addition to regularly scheduled primary and general elections, so ?our services are coming free? for this election, Shamo said. Weatherholt said other expenses, which will be billed to the city's school corporation, will be minor, such as those of feeding poll workers.

The Cannelton Common Council will discuss at today's 7:30 p.m. meeting the procedure for expressing interest in serving in either of the interim positions.

Anyone interested in getting their name on the primary ballot must apply at the county clerk's office. Jan. 18 is the first day candidates can apply.

The office will be closed that day for the special election, but a sign will direct them to another entrance where they can file.

The deadline for applying is noon Feb. 17. Candidates will need to include petition signatures with their applications.

More information may be obtained by calling the county clerk's office at 547-3741.