This Article has appeared in the Howard County Times, Montgomery County Gazzett, frederick County, and Carroll County.

Study a boost for paper ballots
 
 
Report casts doubt on voting machines
09/29/05
By KAUKAB JHUMRA SMITH
Capital News Service

A federal election reform committee, headed by former President Carter, recommends that voting machines issue a paper ballot. 
Maryland advocates of paper records for electronic voting machines are renewing their cause after a report last week from a panel headed by former President Carter recommended that the machines issue paper ballot records to alleviate security issues.

Critics of the Maryland State Board of Elections were buoyed by federal election reform recommendations released this week by the Carter-Baker commission - named for its leaders, Carter, and former Secretary of State James Baker III - and by the unexpected softening of two former opponents toward voter-verified paper records.

"Voting machines must be both accessible and transparent," the report said, adding that direct recording electronic machines, of the kind Maryland - and Howard County - uses, usually don't allow voters to check if their ballot was recorded correctly. Some can't be used for an independent recount, it said.

The Carter-Baker report will affect Howard County's voting systems only if Maryland officials decide to change statewide policy, said Betty Nordaas, Director of the Howard County Board of Elections.

"Howard County takes its positions based on the State Board of Elections," she said.

Electronic voting criticized

Maryland's adoption of electronic voting has been criticized since the state purchased its first machines in 2001.

Critics charge the State Board of Elections spent millions of dollars on unproven machines from Diebold Elections Systems that are poorly made, crash frequently and require rebooting - sometimes, as a report on last year's election by Montgomery County said, while voters were mid-ballot.

A Diebold spokesman said the machines are reliable and not likely to crash.

"They've been proven election after election," David Bear said. "There has never been a security issue with touch-screens."

By far the most publicized issue with the machines is their failure to produce an individual record of a ballot for the voter.

Twenty-six states have passed laws requiring a paper record, according to TrueVoteMD, a nonprofit devoted to advocating for paper voting records.

Maryland's Diebold machines provide paper records for audits by officials, but individual voters don't get a paper copy of their vote before their ballot is cast, Bear said. Although Diebold makes machines with voter-verified paper records, Maryland has not bought them because state law doesn't require them, he said.

Paper copy imperative

Maryland advocates say it is imperative to print a separate paper copy so voters can determine whether their vote was recorded correctly and allow for a recount.

The advocates, including Maryland Senate Minority Whip Andrew Harris, of Baltimore County, and Takoma Park Councilman Marc Elrich, have filed a suit against State Elections Administrator Linda Lamone that says Lamone stuck with the Diebold machines despite knowing of problems with their security and reliability.

In addition to the commission report, one of Lamone's allies against voter verified paper trails, Georgia's secretary of state Cathy Cox, said Sept. 20 that she had changed her mind on the issue.

Maryland and Georgia were among the first states to adopt electronic voting technology and Cox and Lamone traditionally shared the same dislike for paper records, said Linda Schade, TrueVoteMD executive director and another plaintiff in the lawsuit against Lamone.

Also on Sept. 20, a spokesman for Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich told the Associated Press that the governor was "receptive" to the idea of a paper trail.

Lamone was unavailable for comment. Her office referred questions to Ross Goldstein, deputy state elections administrator.

Public opinion unknown

The State Board of Elections doesn't know where public opinion lies on voter verification, Goldstein said.

The board has commissioned studies with the University of Maryland-Baltimore County and the University of Maryland to gauge public opinion and to study alternative ways to verify votes, including audio and video verification rather than paper copies, Goldstein said.

If a voter-verified paper trail were to be approved, all sides agree, Maryland could buy new machines or retrofit its existing 16,000 Diebold machines with printers.

Staff writer Luke Broadwater contributed to this article.