As primary season heats up voting-system upgrades lag

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After the 2000 presidential election debacle, when hanging chads in Florida threw the results in doubt for five weeks, federal and state officials vowed never again. They quickly drafted plans to replace punch cards and other outdated voting systems, and pledged to spend the money needed to ensure every vote is counted properly.

Yet, as the 2004 presidential primary season spreads across the nation, voting systems remain unreliable throughout much of the USA. Many states still are using Florida-style ballots, including Missouri, the largest of seven states that held contests Tuesday. And states that switched to high-tech ballots are finding their computerized systems vulnerable to hackers.

The failure to follow through on election-reform pledges leaves millions of voters vulnerable to more ballot-counting fiascos. And each replay would feed public perceptions of a political system increasingly unresponsive to the needs of voters.

A Jan. 22 report from the Election Reform Information Project documented the lack of progress in upgrading voting systems. The non-partisan research group found that 22 states still have punch cards and a third of all U.S. voters continue using them or other systems highly susceptible to errors, breakdowns or manipulation.

In fact, most voters won't see promised voting reforms until 2006 at the earliest, the report concludes. Among the reasons:

Federal foot-dragging. Congress promised states money and standardized guidelines to avoid a repeat of the 2000 election stalemate. But a commission charged with doling out grants wasn't even appointed until this past December. And the bulk of $2.3 billion in federal aid now available was approved less than two weeks ago.

State stalling. Some states, such as Florida, Georgia and Maryland, went ahead on their own to rewrite laws and replace equipment. But budget crunches became a widespread excuse for most other states to put off voting upgrades. Squabbles over which systems to use and lobbying by rival suppliers also contributed to delays.

Oversold technology. Computer touch screens, touted by backers as the holy grail of accurate voting, have their own problems. Last week, Maryland legislators were told that hackers could tamper with the results of their new $55 million system. Similar concerns have been raised in Ohio and California. Unexplained glitches have occurred in new devices used in recent local elections in Virginia and Florida.

Now, California and Nevada wisely have decided to require a voter-verified paper printout of electronic ballots. Other states and Congress are considering similar requirements. But that won't happen before Maryland, California, Ohio and seven other states hold presidential contests on March 2.

Electronic-voting suppliers say fears of hacking are exaggerated and don't reflect software upgrades already made to guard against fraud. In their own defense, state election officials say voting systems are being upgraded as quickly as possible, given Washington's funding delays and unexpected problems with high-tech machines.

Those excuses don't mask the broken promise to avert a repeat of 2000. Democracy depends on voter confidence that every vote counts - correctly. Ensuring that outcome is already long overdue.