Published: Sunday, September 24, 2006
Anxieties rise about voting system overhaul
One governor suggested ditching the machines and using paper balloting.
SCRIPPS HOWARD
Election officials nationwide are holding their breath and crossing their fingers in hopes America's ballots are smoothly cast and accurately counted in the Nov. 7 general elections.
Much of the turmoil this year comes as officials scramble to meet the mandates of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 — a historic reform enacted by Congress after the debacle of Florida's 2000 presidential election.
Tens of thousands of 1950s-vintage mechanical and punch-card voting machines have been scrapped this year in favor of optical-scanners and electronic touch-screen systems. The law requires new machines that keep an independent paper record of votes.
"Certainly there is nervousness about this, given that a third of the country will be using new voting equipment for the first time this year," said Paul DeGregorio, chairman of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.
The Sept. 12 primaries in suburban Maryland were thrown into chaos when election custodians forgot to distribute credit-card-sized magnetic cards needed to operate new electronic voting machines in most of the 238 polling places of Montgomery County, north of the nation's capital. Thousands of voters were given paper ballots that took several days to count, throwing several elections into confusion.
Placing the blame
Inadequately trained poll workers were blamed for similar troubles in Baltimore, prompting Board of Elections Administrator Gene Raynor to resign after nearly 50 years' experience running city elections. Raynor said he stepped down in hopes of ending dissension among board members so that "they will devote their time toward improving the election judges."
Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich recommended last week that his state scrap $106 million worth of electronic voting machines and use paper balloting in the November elections. "When in doubt, go paper," he said.
"As Maryland showed, it only takes one person to make a mistake to cause big problems. Elections come down to the attention to details," DeGregorio said.
Two-thirds of the nation's precincts that changed to new machines since the 2000 presidential election have done so in the last year or two, according to Kimball Brace, president of Election Data Services, a private firm that tracks voting machine use.
"History has shown that the worst time for elections is usually that first election when new equipment is used," Brace said.
Still around
Not all the old voting machines have been discarded, yet. According to Election Data Services estimates, about 38 counties will use punch card ballots and about 84 others — including the five boroughs of New York City — will have antiquated mechanical lever machines.
"We don't actually have statistics on who is compliant or noncompliant with the law," said Justice Department spokeswoman Cynthia Magnuson. "We are aware that a number of states are having difficulty in reaching these standards."
Voting equipment, whether old or new, may be just one of the headaches awaiting voters.
Whether they'll be allowed to cast a regular ballot, at all, will be determined in many states by whether their names appear on new, untested computer databases of registered voters, another innovation required by the Help America Vote Act meant to reduce confusion at the polls on Election Day.
Eleven states missed the act's Jan. 1 deadline for completion of the database. Wisconsin, for example, will have most of its counties online this month but won't have time to check even the partial database against lists of convicted felons and dead persons before the November elections. Texas officials have said they won't consolidate the state's 259 voter lists into a single database until 2008.
Sued two states
The Justice Department sued officials in New York and Alabama for failing to finish the registration databases this year. More than a dozen states have assured the federal government that their databases are currently operating, but have yet to face their first real test in a general election.
Michael Waldman, executive director of the Brennan Center for Justice and NYU School of Law, said he fears thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people will be improperly removed from the new electronic voter rolls.
Vermont Secretary of State Deb Markowitz, president of the National Association of Secretaries of State, predicted the elections will run smoother than usual because of the new databases.
She said voters in many states or major urban counties can check the voter rolls in advance of Election Day to confirm they are correctly registered. Her national association has built a Web site (CanIvote.org) that connects to registration lists in 21 states and the District of Columbia. Voters can log in and check their status in many places.
Sunday, September 24, 2006
One governor suggested ditching the machines and using paper balloting.
SCRIPPS HOWARD
Election officials nationwide are holding their breath and crossing their fingers in hopes America's ballots are smoothly cast and accurately counted in the Nov. 7 general elections.
Much of the turmoil this year comes as officials scramble to meet the mandates of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 — a historic reform enacted by Congress after the debacle of Florida's 2000 presidential election.
Tens of thousands of 1950s-vintage mechanical and punch-card voting machines have been scrapped this year in favor of optical-scanners and electronic touch-screen systems. The law requires new machines that keep an independent paper record of votes.
"Certainly there is nervousness about this, given that a third of the country will be using new voting equipment for the first time this year," said Paul DeGregorio, chairman of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.
The Sept. 12 primaries in suburban Maryland were thrown into chaos when election custodians forgot to distribute credit-card-sized magnetic cards needed to operate new electronic voting machines in most of the 238 polling places of Montgomery County, north of the nation's capital. Thousands of voters were given paper ballots that took several days to count, throwing several elections into confusion.
Placing the blame
Inadequately trained poll workers were blamed for similar troubles in Baltimore, prompting Board of Elections Administrator Gene Raynor to resign after nearly 50 years' experience running city elections. Raynor said he stepped down in hopes of ending dissension among board members so that "they will devote their time toward improving the election judges."
Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich recommended last week that his state scrap $106 million worth of electronic voting machines and use paper balloting in the November elections. "When in doubt, go paper," he said.
"As Maryland showed, it only takes one person to make a mistake to cause big problems. Elections come down to the attention to details," DeGregorio said.
Two-thirds of the nation's precincts that changed to new machines since the 2000 presidential election have done so in the last year or two, according to Kimball Brace, president of Election Data Services, a private firm that tracks voting machine use.
"History has shown that the worst time for elections is usually that first election when new equipment is used," Brace said.
Still around
Not all the old voting machines have been discarded, yet. According to Election Data Services estimates, about 38 counties will use punch card ballots and about 84 others — including the five boroughs of New York City — will have antiquated mechanical lever machines.
"We don't actually have statistics on who is compliant or noncompliant with the law," said Justice Department spokeswoman Cynthia Magnuson. "We are aware that a number of states are having difficulty in reaching these standards."
Voting equipment, whether old or new, may be just one of the headaches awaiting voters.
Whether they'll be allowed to cast a regular ballot, at all, will be determined in many states by whether their names appear on new, untested computer databases of registered voters, another innovation required by the Help America Vote Act meant to reduce confusion at the polls on Election Day.
Eleven states missed the act's Jan. 1 deadline for completion of the database. Wisconsin, for example, will have most of its counties online this month but won't have time to check even the partial database against lists of convicted felons and dead persons before the November elections. Texas officials have said they won't consolidate the state's 259 voter lists into a single database until 2008.
Sued two states
The Justice Department sued officials in New York and Alabama for failing to finish the registration databases this year. More than a dozen states have assured the federal government that their databases are currently operating, but have yet to face their first real test in a general election.
Michael Waldman, executive director of the Brennan Center for Justice and NYU School of Law, said he fears thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people will be improperly removed from the new electronic voter rolls.
Vermont Secretary of State Deb Markowitz, president of the National Association of Secretaries of State, predicted the elections will run smoother than usual because of the new databases.
She said voters in many states or major urban counties can check the voter rolls in advance of Election Day to confirm they are correctly registered. Her national association has built a Web site (CanIvote.org) that connects to registration lists in 21 states and the District of Columbia. Voters can log in and check their status in many places.
Sunday, September 24, 2006
a historic reform enacted by Congress after the debacle of Florida's 2000 presidential election.
Tens of thousands of...
More Stories from Wed, Sep 27, 2006
