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Some Ohio Counties Won't Post Voting Results in Each Precinct    [

    Some Voting Machines Chop Off Candidates' Names
    By Leef Smith
    The Washington Post

    Tuesday 24 October 2006

Computer glitch affects voters in 3 jurisdictions; error cannot be fixed by November 7.

    U.S. Senate candidate James Webb's last name has been cut off on part of the electronic ballot used by voters in Alexandria, Falls Church and Charlottesville because of a computer glitch that also affects other candidates with long names, city officials said yesterday.

    Although the problem creates some voter confusion, it will not cause votes to be cast incorrectly, election officials emphasized. The error shows up only on the summary page, where voters are asked to review their selections before hitting the button to cast their votes. Webb's full name appears on the page where voters choose for whom to vote.

    Election officials attribute the mistake to an increase in the type size on the ballot. Although the larger type is easier to read, it also unintentionally shortens the longer names on the summary page of the ballot.

    Thus, Democratic candidate Webb will appear with his first name and nickname only - or "James H. 'Jim'" - on summary pages in Alexandria, Falls Church and Charlottesville, the only jurisdictions in Virginia that use balloting machines manufactured by Hart InterCivic of Austin.

    "We're not happy about it," Webb spokeswoman Kristian Denny Todd said last night, adding that the campaign learned about the problem a week ago and has since been in touch with state election officials. "I don't think it can be remedied by Election Day. Obviously, that's a concern."

    Every candidate on Alexandria's summary page has been affected in some way by the glitch. Even if candidates' full names appear, as is the case with Webb's Republican opponent, incumbent Sen. George F. Allen, their party affiliations have been cut off.

    Jean Jensen, secretary of the Virginia State Board of Elections, who said yesterday she only recently became aware of the problem, pledged to have it fixed by the 2007 statewide elections.

    "You better believe it," Jensen said. "If I have to personally get on a plane and bring Hart InterCivic people here myself, it'll be corrected."

    Absentee voters casting ballots in advance of the Nov. 7 election first noticed the problem. Election officials have been forced to post signs in voting booths and instruct poll workers to explain why some longer names appear cut-off.

    Election officials in Alexandria said they have been vexed by the problem since they purchased the voting machines in 2003. Although the problem has raised eyebrows among confused voters, elections officials said they are confident that the trouble has not led voters to cast ballots incorrectly.

    "This is not the kind of problem that has either shaken our confidence in the system overall or that of the vote," said Alexandria Registrar Tom Parkins. "There have been far worse problems around the country."

    James T. "Jim" Hurysz, an independent candidate who's running to unseat incumbent Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.), sees it somewhat differently. His name has been shortened on the summary page to "James T. 'Jim.'"

    Moran is the one lucky James in Alexandria whose last name made the summary page, although without the "Jr."

    "That situation is not acceptable," Hurysz said. "There's enough voter confusion as it is."

    Jensen said Hart InterCivic has created an upgrade for their firmware and recently applied for state certification to apply the fix. That process, she said, can be time-consuming because of security measures in place .

    Hart InterCivic officials yesterday said they hoped to correct the problem by next fall.

    "The newer voting systems will not be certified and installed before the Nov. 7 election," said company Vice President Phillip Braithwaite. Hart InterCivic "does intend to install the newer system version before the next major election in 2007, assuming certification from the commonwealth."

    In the meantime, Jensen said, the three affected jurisdictions have begun educating voters to prevent confusion on Election Day and will place notices in each of the polling booths that explain the summary page problem.

    "We have a very conspicuous posting in the booths and if [voters] say, 'Hey I don't like what I'm seeing on the summary page,' we can refer them to the chart," Parkins said.

    Three years ago, Alexandria purchased about 225 Hart InterCivic machines for $750,000. "We're not comfortable with [this problem] in the long term ... but we have every reason to expect it will be rectified before the next election," Parkins said.

    Sheri Iachetta, general registrar for Charlottesville, said the city purchased 72 machines in 2002. Election officials have had trouble displaying long names ever since.

    "We do have people complain and say they don't get it," Iachetta said. "I completely understand what they're saying, but it's not something I can control. We do a pretty good proactive job getting the word out.... We've tried to let the voters know that their vote will count even if they can't see the entire name on the summary page."

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    Some Ohio Counties Won't Post Voting Results in Each Precinct
    By M.R. Kropko
    The Associated Press

    Tuesday 24 October 2006

    Cleveland - In the age of memory cards, touch-screens and Web posting - and all the controversies surrounding e-voting - voter rights advocates want to see a simple piece of paper at the polls summarizing precincts' totals to compare with official results from election boards.

    Franklin and some other counties will post vote results at the polling places so the public has immediate access to them just after the polls close.

    Some other counties, including Cleveland's Cuyahoga, are choosing not to post the local results. They say poll workers have many other things to worry about in this general election, including checking voter identification for the first time.

    The option has become an issue now because Nov. 7 will be the first general election all 88 Ohio counties use some form of electronic voting. Some people who are worried about the trustworthiness of e-voting want the precinct-level postings as a check.

    "Anything that makes the process less transparent is a terrible idea when so many people are questioning the outcome of elections," said Catherine Turcer, legislative director of Ohio Citizen Action in Columbus.

    An old Ohio law says precinct-level results should be posted. But when the state's punch-card days were numbered because of new federal voting laws requiring electronic voting, Ohio election officials weren't sure whether the law would still apply.

    While planning for the move to e-voting, some officials asked Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, a Republican who's running for governor, to clarify the issue. Blackwell's staff issued a directive last October, telling the counties that the state would not require precinct postings.

    Since then, the decisions by elections boards across Ohio have been mixed.

    Cuyahoga County, which had numerous problems in the May primary when it first tried e-voting, said it doesn't want to overburden its 7,000 poll workers at 574 precincts already busy with new duties that required additional training.

    "There's nothing for us to hide. We think we can integrate that component for future elections," elections chief Michael Vu said.

    Franklin County, which includes Columbus and has used touch-screen electronic voting since 1992, traditionally has posted precinct results at the polls and will continue this November, said Lillian Williams, spokeswoman for the board of elections.

    "We do have people who like to go to the precincts and check the numbers," Williams said.

    Lake County, which is just east of Cuyahoga County and includes the cities Painesville and Mentor, has posted vote results at precincts since 1947. Not doing it would seem strange, said Jan Clair, elections board executive director.

    "We did it back when we had lever machines and then in 1999 when we went with electronic voting," she said. "It's something our poll workers have been accustomed to do. It's taped to wherever they can tape it, and historically some candidates have been standing there waiting to see results."

    Some voter advocates worried about machine or human error, or even fraud, are not happy with decisions not to post results at the polls.

    Vicki Lovegren, a computer science professor at Case Western Reserve University and founder of the voting rights group Ohio Vigilance, said the paper summaries posted at precincts could be "a smoking gun" if the totals are different from what county boards count from memory cards.

    The group's Web site has started "Project Post" urging people to push for posting in counties that have chosen not to do so.

    "It's about checks and balances. It's about not counting in secret. They want you to just trust that the results that come out of the central tabulator are gospel," Lovegren said.

    James Lee, a secretary of state spokesman, said he didn't know which counties will post results and which won't.

    Steve Harsman, president of the Ohio Association of Election Officials, said he also had no idea how many counties will post precinct-level vote summaries.

    "I do think they are tending not to post them," he said. The county where Harsman is elections director, Montgomery County, which includes Dayton, will not post the precinct results. Doing so might overly complicate poll workers' duties, he said.

    Though they are not posted at the polls for immediate public view, the precincts' vote totals are printed and put online, Harsman said.

    In Florida, which like Ohio also uses touch-screen or optical scan voting, precincts are required to post their totals.

    It's generally done by taping a copy to a wall, window or other visible location, said Sterling Ivey, spokesman for the Florida Department of State.

    "It's done to give voters confidence nothing is going to change once the polling place closes and when the count is done at the main office," Ivey said.