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Ehrlich backs paper ballots |
House bill seeks switch for one year
By Tom Stuckey
Associated Press Writer
ANNAPOLIS -- Legislation requiring the state to swap its electronic
voting machines for paper ballots for at least one year got strong
support Monday from Gov. Robert Ehrlich, who said it would be
"inexcusable for us to not be prepared for a catastrophic system
failure in the 2006 election cycle."
Ehrlich urged the state Board of Elections to support a bill that is
scheduled for debate this week in the House of Delegates to lease
optical scanners that would be used to count paper ballots in the
September primary and November general elections. That would give the
state two years to study alternatives, including adding printers to the
current touchscreen machines.
Ehrlich joined other critics who say the Diebold AccuVote-TS machines
that were used in Maryland in 2002 and 2004 can't be relied upon
because there are no paper records of individual votes that could be
used to verify results if there are allegations of fraud or widespread
failure of the touchscreen computers.
Ehrlich's comments came in a letter to Gilles Burger, chairman of the
election board. The governor also asked for additional testing of the
Diebold machines and opposed the law enacted by the General Assembly
over his veto that will allow Marylanders, for the first time, to cast
ballots during the week before the primary and general elections this
year.
Originally published March 7, 2006 |
