States Pressured to Certify Voting Machines
    By Sari Gelzer
    t r u t h o u t | Report

    Friday 31 March 2006

    The 2006 deadline has passed, and pressure is being placed on states to comply with the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). HAVA requires states to transition all voting machines to electronic and optical scan technologies in time for primary and mid-term elections of this year.

    As states are rushing to spend millions of dollars for this transition, controversy over the accuracy and security of the new machines is creating obstacles to reaching this deadline.

    Twenty-six states have already created legislation or regulations that require paper ballots, reported the Verified Voting Foundation. Thirteen more states have proposed voter-verified paper records (VVPR), but have not yet enacted legislation, and 10 states have still not proposed this legislation.

    "The only feasible solution to the insecurity of electronic voting is a universal requirement for voter-verified paper records (VVPR) of all ballots," says David Dill, a computer scientist at Stanford and founder of the Verified Voting Foundation, "

    In an article titled, "Making Democracy Transparent" Dill says that VVPRs, also known as a paper trails, are necessary because electronic voting is "totally opaque - no one can observe the handling of the (electronic) ballots."

    The demand for VVPRs is the source of much controversy in states like Maryland, which voted to spend millions of dollars replacing its machines for the upcoming mid-term elections.

    Following is a brief account of current key state battles over voting machines, a debate that has resulted in missed HAVA deadlines and continued inquiry into the technology that is shaping America's electoral process.

    Maryland: House Votes for VVPRs

    Maryland, which was one of the first states to purchase Diebold electronic voting machines and use them in the 2004 election, has now voted to abandon the touch-screen machines because of their lack of paper trail, reports the Washington Post.

    On March 9th, Maryland's House of Delegates voted to abandon electronic machines with a bill that would prohibit the use of Diebold machines in the upcoming mid-term elections this November. The bill passed 137-00, reported the Washington Post, with overwhelming support due to the desire for VVPRs. The decision now awaits the Senate's approval.

    The Washington Post speculates that the Senate is moving in a different direction. Senator Paula C. Hollinger (D-Baltimore County) wishes to continue Maryland's relationship with Diebold and has proposed a newer model that provides VVPRs.

    Maryland's decision to lease optical-scan machines for one year, until they can find a way to efficiently implement a VVPR solution to their Diebold machines, will add another $13 million this year to an already-spent $90 million for both acquiring and maintaining the Diebold machines, according to the Washington Post.

    Florida: Voting Machine Companies Blacklist County

    Election supervisor Ion Sancho, of Leon County, Florida, is unable to comply with HAVA provisions - not because of his refusal to purchase electronic voting machines for the disabled, but because the three companies that are certified to sell the machines in Florida are refusing to sell to him, the Washington Post reports.

    All three companies - Diebold Inc., Election Systems & Software Inc. and Sequoia Voting Systems Inc. - are refusing to sell to Sancho because of his staunch criticism on the security and accuracy of the machines.

    Last year, Sancho allowed a Finnish computer scientist to test Leon County's Optical Scanner voting machines, made by Diebold. Some tests showed strong resistance to an outside attack, but others showed that elections workers could alter the vote tallies by manipulating the removable memory cards in the voting machines without detection, according to the Washington Post.

    The refusal of these three voting machine companies to sell Sancho the machines has resulted in the loss of $564,421 in federal grant money because the January 1, 2006, deadline to provide votings systems for the disabled was missed.

    "What he's done has put the entire state of Florida in jeopardy," Secretary of State Sue Cobb's spokeswoman Jenny Nash said, explaining that the US Department of Justice will declare the entire state noncompliant just because one county isn't, the Washington Post reported in an earlier story.

    A similar finding of flaws in Diebold electronic voting machines in California provided Sancho's case with more credibility.

    Florida's Attorney General reported Wednesday that he is going to investigate the interaction between Sancho and the three voting machine companies further, according to the Associated Press.

    "These subpoenas are to ensure that the rights of our voters with disabilities as well as all Florida voters are secured," Attorney General Charlie Crist told the Associated Press.

    California: Voters Sue Secretary of State

    California Voters are suing their Secretary of State, Bruce McPherson, for certifying the Diebold TSx electronic voting machines. In the suit they are attempting to block both the purchase and use of the machines in California due to what they say are serious security, verifiability, and disability access problems, according to VoterAction, a non-profit organization committed to eliminating privatized voting machines and creating a transparent voting system nationwide.

    Plaintiff Dolores Huerta, social justice activist and co-founder of the United Farm Workers of America, said "Diebold systems have failed in security tests and in communities around the country. In certifying the Diebold machines, the Secretary has sidestepped his duty to deny certification to voting systems that violate state and federal standards."

    California State sued Diebold in 2004 for making fraudulent claims regarding the security of its electronic voting machines. The claim was settled for $2.6 million to the state and another $100,000 to affected counties, according to Wired.

    As of now, only 11 counties in California are fully compliant with state and federal regulations in time for the June Primary, according to information from the San Mateo County GIS Database.

    New York: US Justice Department Sues State

    The US Justice Department is suing the state of New York because it says they are not HAVA compliant, the Associated Press reports.

    A judge has ordered New York to create a plan by April 10 that ensures that all counties have an electronic voting machine for the disabled. They must also commit to creating plans for further compliance with HAVA standards.

    The judge denied the request of several interest groups who wished to intervene in this case. The Associated Press reported that the State League of Women Voters wanted to intervene because they were worried that New York would be forced to make a decision too quickly on machines that may be unsatisfactory, resulting in wasted money spent.

    The New York Times commented on the state's delay and agreed with the need to proceed with caution, in an editorial titled "New York: Bungling Voting Machines."

    "Nobody wants to slow down an excruciatingly slow process or cost the state any more federal money. But there is no excuse for using the last-minute scramble for federal funds to buy flawed machines," wrote the New York Times.

    North Carolina: Optical Scanning Flaws Found

    Three counties in North Carolina have decided not to use electronic machines this voting year, and will be counting ballots by hand, the Assocated Press reports. This decision comes after an electronic voting machine error caused 4,438 votes to be lost in Carteret County during the November 2004 election.

    Since then, North Carolina has created tougher restrictions and now uses optical scan machines purchased from Election Systems & Software, the only company approved to do business in the state.

    However, not even the optical scan machines are free of fault. Recently, the Associated Press reports, Election Systems & Software discovered a flaw in memory cards used in the optical scan machines, and replaced them with barely over a month before the state's primary elections this May.

    Trust in Voting

    In his editorial, David Dill mentioned that the public trust in voting is eroding, but that all problems with the voting system can be solved. "There remains much to do on the technology front, including converting hard-core e-voting states like Texas, Florida, and Georgia to VVPR ... But these problems can be solved with time and dedicated activism," said Dill.

    "We have seen time and time again that election laws are routinely ignored - unless someone is watching," Dill said, encouraging citizens to be involved in elections.

    For information regarding all states, a report done by electiononline.org titled "Election Reform: What's Changed, What Hasn't, and Why, 2000-2006" provides a graph that gives the statistics of each state's progress toward compliance with HAVA.