Lawmaker fears bugs in computer voting

Wednesday, February 18, 2004
By MARK PERKISS
Staff Writer

Mercer County puts its new computerized voting machines into action for the first time Saturday in the annual fire district elections, but Rep. Rush Holt is questioning whether they will count votes properly.

"I've had election officials tell me they've used the computerized voting machines in numerous elections and have not had a problem," said Holt, D-Hopewell Township. "My response is, `How do you know?'

"These machines and others like them used in New Jersey and around the country do not offer the voter a way to verify that the votes they cast are recorded properly," Holt said in a recent appearance before the newly created Assembly Federal Relations Committee.

Holt is the prime sponsor of a bill in Congress to mandate that electronic voting machines include a voter-verified paper trail to check votes and is raising the security and reliability issue as New Jersey and other states grapple with how to comply with the federal Help America Vote Act of 2002.

That legislation is designed to modernize voting systems throughout the country.

Holt's bill - with more than 100 co-sponsors, including some Republicans - and companion legislation in the Senate were introduced in the wake of concerns by computer science experts about security flaws in electronic voting systems.

Holt said software and equipment problems experienced in states such as Florida, Indiana, Maryland, Mississippi and Virginia show the need for vote verification.

"Errors and irregularities in the use of brand new and very expensive (electronic) voting machines are not a matter of conjecture and hypothesis," Holt said. "They are a matter of fact."

He pointed to an Indiana election last year where electronic machines counted 144,000 votes in an area where only 19,000 people lived and another in Mississippi where machines malfunctioned shortly after the polls opened, forcing officials to turn away voters because there were no backup paper ballots.

The solution, he says, is having voters view their votes on paper through a window in the machine before pressing a button to make their ions final. That, Holt said, would prevent hackers from committing fraud by changing how a computerized machine records votes.

Under the bill, in the event of a recount, paper ballots would be counted to determine the winner.

Ramon de la Cruz, New Jersey's director of elections, questioned whether Holt's remedy fits the problem.

"From what I understand, the problems that have taken place have to do with the human factor, meaning how well voters were educated about the new machines and how well the poll workers were trained," he said.

Dominic Magnolo, chairman of the Mercer County Board of Elections, who was involved in the ion of the county's new voting machines, said he is unaware of any problems with the equipment.

"They've been used in various places in New Jersey and around the country for years, and they've worked just the way they're supposed to," he said.

Opponents of Holt's legislation say the computerized voting machines already provide adequate security and that there has not been enough testing of the technology needed to create a paper trail to ensure it will prevent fraud.

Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes agrees with Holt's argument and plans to spend as much as $500,000 to upgrade the county's 600 new electronic touch-screen voting machines with verifiable paper trail equipment in time for November's presidential election.

That money is on top of the $3.9 million Mercer spent to buy the new voting machines to replace outmoded Shoup lever machines that have been in service for as long as 50 years and for which repair parts are no longer available.

The new machines will be used for the first time in many of this weekend's fire district elections. Most county voters, however, will vote on the new machines for the first time either in April's school board elections or the June primaries. Hughes' move is in line with California, whose secretary of state in November ruled that all of that state's touch-screen voting machines should be outfitted with a voter-verifiable paper trail by July 2006.

So far, California, Illinois, Nevada, Washington and Wisconsin have moved to require paper trails for electronic voting machines, said Michael Kerr, director of the Election Technology Council, a new industry group that was formed in December.

The new voting machines being put into service in Mercer are identical to those used in Middlesex County.

With the new machines - which can be used by people who are blind or in wheelchairs, another requirement of HAVA - voters will press a square next to a candidate's name, causing a green arrow or "X" to appear next to the name.

Pressing the same square again removes the arrow, allowing a voter to change his or her mind. The machine does not allow a voter to vote for an excessive number of candidates in a particular race.

The paper trail upgrade would give voters a chance to see a paper copy of their votes to confirm accuracy. The paper records would be stored in the machine and used in case of a recount or a machine malfunction.

Magnolo, of the county elections board, questioned whether the addition of the paper trail upgrade is needed.

"There's a green arrow that lights up when you press the button next to the candidate's name," he said. "Down below there's a screen that verifies it. When you're ready to cast the ballot, everything is lit and you can see who you voted for. It's a pretty simple machine. It's easy to use and easy to verify."

State officials are taking a go-slow approach. "The mandate at the moment is to upgrade the voting machines from the punch card and lever machines and we've been doing that," said de la Cruz, the state election director.

"The issue of security and verification was not dealt with under HAVA, and we and other states are looking for guidance from the federal Election Assistance Commission," he said. "We're asking the same question. What do we have to do?"

Assemblyman Reed Gusciora, D-Princeton Borough, who chairs the Assembly Federal Relations Committee, said he is concerned about improving the security of electronic voting machines and is willing to adopt Holt's approach.

Assemblyman Guy Gregg, R-Washington Township, Morris County, said that while he agrees in theory with the idea of voters being able to verify their votes on paper, he is more concerned about making sure that only registered voters cast ballots.

"A paper trail is nice, but first things first," he said. "Let's make sure that the people who go to the polls are who they say they are and are properly registered." NOTE: Contact Mark Perkiss at mperkiss@njtimes.com or at (609) 943-5727.