New voting machines in place for primary election By:Cheryl Mattix , cmattix@cecilwhig.com 02/27/2004 When voters in Cecil County go to the polls in Tuesday's primary election they will be testing the county's new touch-screen voting system for the first time. The AccuVote-TS system made by Diebold was the voting system ed by the state of Maryland in 2002. The new system went gone through a great deal of scrutiny after a Johns Hopkins University study revealed last summer that it may have some security shortcomings. Legislators asked the Department of Legislative Services (DLS) to conduct an independent review of the issues surrounding the new electronic voting system, asking that special attention be paid to security and voter verification. DLS later concluded, "the March primary election can be held successfully without any changes to the Diebold software." Evelyn Potter, director of the election board in Cecil County, said she is not worried about security being breached. "They would have to bring screwdrivers to the polling place to break into the system. I think someone might notice that," she said. "I think the new system will be easy for the voter to use," Potter added. "The touch screen is very simple. Voters get to review their ions on screen and can go back and make changes before they submit their final ballot." State election officials say the new system meets Maryland's need for multiple languages and allows the visually impaired or disabled voter to vote without assistance. The primary election Tuesday, March 2, is also the first federal election in Maryland since the enactment of the Federal Help America Vote Act of 2002. New federal law requires voters who registered after Jan. 1, 2003, or will be voting in Maryland for the first time after Jan. 1, 2004, to show identification. "We're lucky we only have about 200 registered voters who have not met the requirement yet," Potter said. All 200 have been notified. "They can bring identification to the election office in the courthouse before Tuesday or they can bring it to their polling place on election day," Potter said. Names of the 200 persons will be flagged so election judges will know to ask for credentials. A copy of current and valid photo identification is preferred, but current utility bills, bank statements, paychecks or other official documents showing the voter's name and address are acceptable forms of identification. Once at the polls, voters will be able to test their skill with the new equipment on a special machine set up at each of the county's 18 polling places. Two machines at each polling place will be set up to accommodate voters with special needs. They will provide audio and magnified ballots. Voters will be ing candidates for President of the United States, U.S. Senate, U.S. Representative in the 1st District, County Commissioner Districts 1 and 5, Judge of the Circuit Court and delegates and alternate delegates to the Republican and Democratic National Conventions. Maryland is at the forefront of national election reform as a result of the passage of the Help America Vote Act which authorized $3.86 billion for states to pay for new voting machines, voter registration databases and other election needs. Maryland spent $55 million for 16,000 electronic touch screen voting units from Diebold Election Systems in January 2002, but questions remain about the trustworthiness of these as-yet, untested state-of-the-art voting systems. Maryland lawmakers are considering a bill this session that would add an extra precaution for accuracy by requiring a paper trail for each vote cast. The voter-verified paper record would be the official record of the election and would be used in the event of a recount. Diebold has said it would have to develop this capacity as an add-on to the current system. The current federal law does not require a paper record be produced for each voter at the polling place. The fiscal impact could be significant for state and local budgets if this bill passes. A bill was heard by the House Ways and Means Committee Feb. 10, but it has not yet come out of committee.

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