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The Electronic Voting Dilemma
by Sarah Lai Stirland
Three counties in California late last week won the right to use touch-screen voting systems in this November's presidential election. But they, along with eight other counties so far this year, achieved that goal only after agreeing to state demands to improve the security and reliability of the voting machines.
The fight within California reflects a larger one playing out in counties nationwide, where both concerned politicians and citizen groups are demanding that election officials stop deploying machines without paper trails to confirm votes or that governments impose stricter certification standards. In Congress, meanwhile, Democrats have introduced bills to amend a 2002 law aimed at helping local governments improve elections by requiring paper verifications.
But the likelihood of congressional action before November is slim.
Paper Or Plastic: A 21st-Century Choice
Electronic voting has been a hot issue ever since Florida's vote-counting controversy in the 2000 presidential race. That dispute, which led to a Supreme Court ruling upholding the election of George W. Bush over former Vice President Al Gore, prompted Congress to enact a law aimed at helping counties change how they run elections.
The statute called for almost $4 billion in federal aid to counties to replace old voting machines. It also charged the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) with leading a drive for e-voting standards and created the Election Assistance Commission. The act further provides for training poll workers and voters on the use of e-voting machines.
But NIST will not issue its recommendations in time for this year's election. Instead, the Election Assistance Commission has issued "best practices" in e-voting for election officials to incorporate. And technology experts have questioned the security and reliability of e-voting.
Several of the criticisms, including those in a report released in July 2003, focused on the machines made by Diebold, which is providing machines in California.
The complaints against Diebold's machines and their performance in the March presidential primary in California prompted California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley to decertify the machines as "defective and unacceptable" in April. He also blocked the use of machines from Diebold and other manufacturers unless they create paper trails of votes and meet 23 other security conditions, such as the right to vote on paper.
Since then, officials from 11 California counties -- including the most recent entrants, Alameda, Plumas and Los Angeles counties -- have agreed to Shelley's conditions and will be able to use touch-screen machines to vote for the next president. If recounts are necessary in those counties, officials will be able to examine the paper trail. They also will have access to the e-voting machines' software code to check for problems or irregularities.
No End To The Controversy
The changes in California have done little to quell the controversy, however. Nearly 30 percent of voters, or 50 million people, will use some form of e-voting machine this November.
Democrats are mobilizing forces to address the issue. During the Democratic National Convention in Boston earlier this month, for instance, they outlined plans for addressing the issue, with Reps. William Clay of Missouri and Marcy Kaptur of Ohio urging state election officials to have their e-voting equipment certified before use.
Kaptur also announced that she is forming a group of election-law experts to help election officials on Election Day, and Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., said he wants to create a similar clearinghouse in every state. Holt and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., authored bills that would amend the 2002 voting statute.
Although Republicans generally have been less vocal on the issue, GOP officials in Florida have voiced concerns about the integrity of e-voting machines. Holt's bill also has GOP supporters.
In an interview, Clay said he had to push for a July House Government Reform Technology Subcommittee hearing on e-voting integrity. "But I think the Republicans are just as concerned about getting a paper trail established and getting votes counted," he said. "Ronald Reagan said, 'Trust, but verify.' That's what I say about electronic voting."
Groups such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Blackboxvoting.org, VerifiedVoting.org and regional groups like TrueVoteMD.org and the California Voter Foundation continue to campaign for voter-verified paper trails through litigation and voter education.
Beyond The Paper Trail
As the groups push other state election boards to follow California's lead, some critics argue that the focus on paper trails detracts from the real problems of election administration.
"I think a lot of energy has been wasted on this paper-trail debate," said Dan Tokaji, an assistant professor of law at Ohio State University's Moritz College of Law. "There's been a shocking lack of attention being paid to the evidence, and if people were paying attention to the studies, they'd realize that punch-card systems lose more votes and they're being used in key swing states."
Tokaji said one bigger question is how election officials interpret the 2002 law to address voting by people whose names mistakenly do not appear on registration lists when they go to the polls. He also noted statistical research showing that touch-screen systems have a lower rate of recording errors than punch-card systems.
But the nonprofit groups are not just focused on paper trails. The California Voter Foundation is encouraging Californians to choose paper ballots when they vote, and organizations such as VerifiedVoting are mobilizing volunteers for Election Day programs they are running.
VerifiedVoting is running an election-incident reporting system, which is a database for groups planning to monitor this year's elections. The system will act as an information clearinghouse on events such as machine malfunctions. The group hopes to have a test version ready by the end of the month in various Florida counties.
Volunteer technologists for VerifiedVoting also are planning to be in jurisdictions that are expected to be important in the election. Will Doherty, the group's executive director, said the list of jurisdictions that the volunteers will monitor is still in flux, but 1,300 technologists currently have offered their services.
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