Viriginia electronic voting machines deemed a failure; same ones that crashed in November will be used in upcoming primary
by David Cho, Washington Post
Jan. 10, 2004
New touch-screen voting machines used in Fairfax County's local elections in November were a "failure," and county electoral officials were unprepared to deal with the equipment's problems, according to a county GOP committee report released yesterday.
In their report, Republican officials urged the county to investigate the "poor performance" of the machines, and they recommended state regulations that would require localities with the new equipment to follow stringent procedures.
"Neither the Fairfax County Electoral Board, nor the new voting machines was ready for Election Day," the report said. "The new touch screen machines were a technological and procedural failure."
Several Democratic and Republican state legislators are drafting bills aimed at avoiding further problems with the machines, in Fairfax and elsewhere. One measure would require the touch-screen devices to meet more rigorous security standards in order to be certified by the state. Another would require localities to attach printers to the machines and provide voters with paper records of their ballots.
"Our solutions not only need to work, but they need to work to give the citizenry confidence in the voting system," said state Sen. Ken Cuccinelli (R-Fairfax).
Margaret K. Luca, secretary of the county Board of Elections, disputed the GOP committee's report, calling it inaccurate.
"It was about as good as an Election Day as we've ever had," Luca said. Her staff "bent over backwards" to prepare for the election and held numerous demonstrations and seminars for the public beforehand.
"I feel so hurt that anyone would say we were not prepared; I mean, we were so well prepared," Luca said. She said that every technical problem cited in the report was fixed in the weeks after the election.
"We anticipate having a perfect election in February," she said. The Virginia Democratic presidential primary will be held Feb. 10.
Fairfax purchased nearly 1,000 touch-screen voting machines last year from Advanced Voting Solutions of Frisco, Tex., for $3.5 million. The devices, which resemble laptop computers without keyboards, were used countywide for the first time in November.
Fairfax officials had promised that their machinery would perform well, citing a battery of tests. They also predicted that the system would greatly speed up the reporting of results. Instead, the new machines produced one of the slowest vote counts in recent history as precinct workers struggled to transmit results electronically. The problems mirrored many of those experienced by Montgomery County when it switched to touch-screen machines in 2002.
The Republican report cited dozens of e-mails and letters from precinct workers and voters who described problems such as machines that repeatedly crashed, screens that balked at registering votes and delays in tallying votes.
A furor also erupted in Fairfax when Luca ordered that 10 machines that had crashed at the polls be taken to the county government center for repairs -- a move Republicans called illegal. At the time, the county had no policy for dealing with machines that could not be repaired on site.
That controversy prompted the GOP investigation and yesterday's report.
"The laws have not kept pace with the technology, and nobody is at fault for that. It just happens," said Christopher T. Craig, a lawyer for the county GOP committee and a co-author of the study.
"There's enough questions about" the Fairfax elections, said Del. J. Chapman Petersen (D-Fairfax). "It seems from my perspective that there's definitely room for a more standardized procedure. In the precincts in my district, machines broke down, lines were long . . . but a primary issue for me is certainly security."
Petersen said he would introduce a bill requiring the state Board of Elections to better address security issues.
Maintaining voter confidence in the machines should be the principal goal of any new regulations, Cuccinelli said.
"Fairfax County did not have sufficient procedures in place by any stretch of the imagination to deal with this," he said.
Published by
Washington Post
|
|
California asks for details of Diebold's unauthorized changes to voting software
The Oakland Tribune
Jan. 16, 2004
The state's Voting Systems and Procedures panel asked for more information Thursday about software changes made without state or federal certification by the maker of voting machines used in Alameda County and other jurisdictions.
"All of the questions, particularly better understanding how and why these upgrades happened, still have not been fully answered," said Doug Stone, spokesman for Secretary of State Kevin Shelley. "We hope the information that we believe Diebold will provide to us will provide a more comprehensive and detailed answer."
State officials in December revealed Diebold Election Systems had supplied uncertified software to all 17 California counties in which it has machines.
Critics have noted Diebold CEO Walter O'Dell's ties to Republican fund-raising and are concerned the company's system is prone to illegal manipulation.
The panel on Thursday gave Diebold 30 days to provide documentation, including technical specifications on software and hardware upgrades the company made to its voting systems, the company's internal software development security procedures, and copies of all contracts signed with California counties since 2001.
Published by
The Oakland Tribune
|
|
Ohio counties refuse to use electronic voting machines until problems fixed
by Mark Naymik and Julie Carr Smyth, The Plain Dealer [Cleveland]
Jan. 16, 2004
A group of Ohio's largest counties, including Cuyahoga, refused Thursday to meet a state deadline for selecting new voting machines until Secretary of State Ken Blackwell can guarantee that the machines are secure.
At the same time, more than half the counties that were required to select a voting-machine maker chose the company whose security problems have gained it the most scrutiny nationally: Diebold Election Systems. The Canton-based company has landed more than $31 million in contracts statewide.
The large counties protesting -- including Democrat-dominated Cuyahoga, Republican-heavy Hamilton, and Montgomery --said too many security and cost-related questions remain about the new systems.
Among their chief concerns: 57 separate security risks found in the machines during an independent review that Blackwell commissioned, which have not all been fixed yet; the machines' long-term costs; and whether the machines should produce a paper receipt.
"Those security issues need to be worked out and the paper-trail issue needs to be clarified before we will make a decision," said Tom Coyne, chairman of Cuyahoga's elections board.
Blackwell has said that he is confident the security flaws can be corrected by the voting-machine makers and that his office will be responsible for making sure they are fixed.
"Those issues will be corrected or that vendor will not operate in Ohio," Carlo LoParo, a spokesman for Blackwell, said Thursday.
That promise is not good enough for all elections officials, particularly in some larger counties where elections are more complex than in small, rural counties -- and local officials might be left holding the political bag if something goes wrong.
"While, as you, we believe those security flaws can be corrected, until we are advised that they have been, we are not comfortable selecting any of the vendors," Hamilton County officials wrote in a recent letter to Blackwell.
Still, 62 of 71 counties participating in the statewide upgrade from punch cards met Thursday's deadline, allowing Blackwell's office to proceed with contracts for nearly 15,000 machines statewide.
Diebold secured contracts with 40 counties, representing about 10,000 machines. Its competitors won much less: Election Systems & Software (11), Hart Intercivic (seven), and Sequoia Voting Systems (four).
So the indecision of some of Ohio's most populous counties remains significant. Uncommitted counties control about 12,300 machines statewide.
Seventeen counties were not required to meet Thursday's deadline because they already replaced their paper-ballot systems. Several counties narrowed their choices to two vendors or systems.
All four voting-machine makers were short-listed by Blackwell to compete for a piece of the $161 million set aside by the federal government for upgrading Ohio's voting systems.
LoParo said state officials will meet with each undecided county to try to resolve their concerns.
LoParo would not say how long Blackwell will wait, or whether Blackwell would choose a voting system for these counties. But he emphasized that federal law holds Blackwell's office responsible for making sure that the paper-ballot systems are replaced by January 2006.
"We will ask the counties to make a selection before we consider any other action," LoParo said.
He said Thursday's deadline was set to allow the state time to finalize the contracts and to give vendors time to produce the machines before the election deadlines.
Published by
The Plain Dealer [Cleveland]
|
|
Congressman sues State of Florida for allowing electronic voting without paper records
Associated Press
Jan. 17, 2004
BOCA RATON, Fla. -- A congressman pushing to require electronic voting machines to produce a paper trail is taking his case to the courts.
U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, a Boca Raton Democrat, filed a lawsuit Friday in Palm Beach County against Florida Secretary of State Glenda Hood and Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Theresa LePore, claiming the officials are violating their duties to ensure votes are counted accurately by not using machines with paper printouts.
Wexler, who said he wrote Hood and LePore over the issue several months before he filed the suit, wants printed duplicates of all ballots cast on the electronic voting machines used in 15 Florida counties. He said this is the only way to accurately recount ballots in a close race, and guarantee fair elections.
Elections supervisors across the state oppose spending more money on the machines, saying the voting systems can already provide a paper record of each person's vote.
Hood's office didn't return a call seeking comment Saturday. The answering machine at the Palm Beach County elections office did not accept messages.
Wexler is not the only one focusing on the voting machines. Last week's special election for Florida House District 91, which is split between Broward and Palm Beach counties, fed the debate over the need for an official paper trail.
Ellyn Bogdanoff won that election by 12 votes, but there were 134 undervotes, or ballots that did not register a choice for any candidates.
Because all but the absentee ballots in that election were electronic, officials could not conduct a traditional manual recount. That prompted Palm Beach County commissioners to ask the state for the authority to retrofit touch screen voting machines so they produce paper ballots -- at a cost of $2.2 million.
To some extent, the debate has broken down along party lines. Many Democrats say a paper ballot is necessary to ensure the accuracy of the vote, while Republicans largely oppose the idea.
"I think there is heightened sensitivity among Democrats because we were the victims last time," said Chris Griffin, a Tampa lawyer who was the regional chairman of the Gore-Lieberman campaign for West Central Florida. "If the roles were reversed, you'd have a reversal in sensitivity."
Wexler said his suit isn't based on partisan issues.
"There is nothing Democratic about it, and there is nothing Republican about it. This is as American as apple pie," he said.
Lepore said there's no simple fix that will satisfy all constituent groups. She said some people question what language the printouts would be in, and advocates for the blind argue printouts would erase the benefits of the electronic machines' audio features, which let blind voters cast secret ballots.
In addition, LePore said the counties require state approval to add the printing devices.
"It's not as easy as going to Office Depot and buying printers," LePore said.
Sequoia Voting Systems, which supplied the voting machines used in Palm Beach County, plans to seek federal certification for a printer by the end of March. Federal certification is required before state certification.
Kurt Browning, Pasco County elections supervisor and Legislative Committee chairman for the state elections supervisors association, said the organization opposes printers.
"We just don't see the need for it," Browning said. "These counties have spent millions and millions of dollars on voting systems."
Though he said some people would be more confident in the voting system if there were a paper record, Browning said it was a question of "spending millions of dollars to keep a relatively small number of people happy."
Published by
Associated Press
|
