Election professionals are worried that changes to federal law might complicate their work, but advocates for equipment reform say updates are essential and can be in place for the 2008 presidential election.
HR811, sponsored by Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., is expected to be the first major federal election law change since the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002. HAVA was meant to fix all the equipment problems arising from the hanging-chad nightmare of Florida in 2000, and it added more verification requirements for voter registration.
One HAVA change is that every precinct in the nation is required to have accessible voting equipment, with the idea that a visually disabled person could follow audio prompts and mark a ballot in secrecy. Some jurisdictions met this requirement with a "ballot marking device," which takes the voter's input and prints a paper ballot. But many more addressed it with touch-screen voting equipment, either with or without a paper trail.
In the four years since HAVA's passage, concerns about the security of touch-screen voting equipment have increased "There is a consensus among computer scientists that these vulnerabilities are a danger to our democratic process," said Sean Flaherty of Iowans for Voting Integrity.
Holt's bill requires a paper trail to be kept on an "individual, durable ballot." Most current touch-screen systems that have paper records produce a continuous roll of paper, dubbed a "toilet paper roll." Most of these use a thermal printing process, much like older fax machines, and the print quality degenerates with time and exposure to light. Flaherty said the bill has a split deadline: Jurisdictions that had rolls on or before the 2006 general election would be able to keep them until 2010, but other jurisdictions must have individual durable ballots up and running by the 2008 presidential election.
"The paper trail is great for a recount," said Flaherty, "but recounts are few and far between. You have to have routine audits to make sure that elections are being tallied correctly." Under the Holt bill, 3 percent of precincts would be audited in every federal election. If the margin of victory in a federal race was between 1 and 2 percent, the number of audited precincts would increase to 5 percent; 10 percent of precincts would be audited if a race was closer than 1 percent.
Audits are critical, said University of Iowa computer science professor Doug Jones. Since testifying before Congress in the wake of the Florida 2000 presidential debacle, Jones has emerged as a national expert on computer election systems and security, winning the nickname "the Yoda of voting equipment."
"Bush v. Gore was a victory for the machine method of tabulation," said Jones, "because it held that the eyeball is a subjective process. That's bankrupt. It assumes that machines are reliable. Machines need to be checked." Jones said methods of checking integrity other than audits are less effective. "Source code review doesn't always work. People don't find the corruptness."
Voter verification is also an important part of the ballot-marking process. "On a paper ballot, people verify as they make their marks," said Jones. Touch-screen systems instead use a final verification screen that a voter can review before making the final touch to cast the ballot.
"Only about 30 percent of voters notice the verification screen," he said. "And there's good reason to believe that even fewer notice the voter verified paper trail, due to legibility. But if even one percent of voters check the verification screen, they'll detect a crooked system."
The verification screen became a key issue in a close 2006 congressional race. Ironically, the race was not only in Florida -- it was the contest to replace Katherine Harris, who was in charge of Florida's 2000 election as secretary of state. Thirteen percent of voters in Sarasota County undervoted (skipped the race on their touch-screen ballots) in a contest decided for Republican Vern Buchanan by a few hundred votes. "In Florida 13, the congressional race was gone on the review screen," said Flaherty.
"But look at the rate of complaints it takes to trigger action, as in Florida 13," said Jones. "Yet the conclusion officals drew was 'it's the voter's fault.' They'll ignore the voters unless there's more complaints -- which leads to a distrust of the verification screen."
Election officials, having gone through one round of procedural changes since HAVA, are wary of yet more requirements. A report issued by the Election Center, a nonprofit association of local election officals that focuses on training and certification, argued:
The proposed numbers of ballots counted under the audit provisions are unreasonable and inconsistent with auditing protocols. The assigned percentages are not statistically relevant to the objectives associated with conducting audits. The bill mandates an impossible effective date for implementation in states where no such audit function exists, (and) fails to recognize existing timelines and dates for certifying elections."
Flaherty, of Iowans for Voting Integrity, dismisses concerns that the Holt bill asks for too much too soon, and says equipment can be replaced before the presidential election. "States have proven 2008 is doable. North Carolina did the whole process in eight months. If it's important, it can be done."
Local election officials are also concerned about the cost of HR811. Most jurisdictions replaced their equipment after HAVA, and those with touch screens eventually will face yet another equipment purchase and the related costs in training. HAVA combined the stick of requirements with the carrot of funding. At a recent town hall meeting in Iowa City, U.S. Rep. Dave Loebsack, D-Iowa, said county auditors have talked to him about costs, and Holt has assured Loebsack there will be funding. Loebsack also said many Republicans in the House are supportive, but that movement is slow in the Senate.
Iowa's three Democratic House members -- Loebsack, Leonard Boswell and Bruce Braley -- are among HR811's 216 co-sponsors. The two Iowa Republicans -- Tom Latham and Steve King -- are not. "There's a lot of passion for this issue among Democrats, but support is bipartisan," said Flaherty.
The main bill in the U.S. Senate is S1487, sponsored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. Presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd and Barack Obama are Senate co-sponsors. All have their own bills, which are not expected to advance. Clinton's bill contains a Democratic wish list such as nationwide same-day registration and access to absentee voting.
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