Voting machines prove new not always better

By MILFORD FRYER
mfryer@theadvocate.com
Suburban editor

The problems with electronic voting machines don't seem ready to subside, even though a district judge has upheld an election that was challenged based on their use.

That challenge, pursued by a losing candidate in Independence, was in one of the only two parishes with electronic machines Tangipahoa and Ascension. There were problems in two municipalities Independence and Ponchatoula in the March 9 elections.

"We have more problems in those two parishes than all of the other parishes put together," Secretary of State Fox McKeithen said after ballots cast in the Ponchatoula elections March 9 failed to get properly posted with the secretary of state's office.

"It was a human error," McKeithen's commissioner of elections, Wade O. Martin, said of the Ponchatoula foul-up. "Test votes were not cleared from our computer."

Whatever the cause, the machines' problems clearly raise eyebrows.

Louisiana is not alone in complaints about electronic machines, but the Louisiana machines have a paper backup. One of the complaints in other states, including California, is that their machines have no such verification, and if votes are lost, they are lost.

In the Ponchatoula elections, Tangipahoa Parish Clerk of Court John Dahmer said he double- checked the results with a ticker tape from the machines. He also said the results are maintained inside the machines, but those votes would have to be retrieved by the manufacturer.

In the lawsuit heard Thursday in 21st Judicial District Court, Dale Brouillette contested election results that showed he came in sixth losing by six votes in the at-large balloting to five aldermen for Independence.

Brouillette contended the machines failed to provide an adequate summary of the candidates ed before a voter concluded voting. He also said the machines were not private, and other voters and poll workers could see how a voter voted.

He also said machine failures forced some voters to vote partially on one machine and then have to move to another machine to finish balloting.

The challenge also raised issues not related to the machines, including the charge that people who live outside the town were allowed to vote in the town.

Judge Zoey Waguespack said Brouillette did not shoulder the burden of proof that irregularities occurred and that, without them, he would have won the election.

She said Brouillette produced only one person from outside the town who voted in the town's election. She sided with McKeithen's lawyer, Merietta Norton, who said state law does not require a summary of candidates the voter has ed.

The complaint about the summary issue was that, while the machines listed the names of the candidates ed in single-seat races, in the race for five at-large aldermen the summary only listed the number of candidates ed.

Testimony revealed, however, that if a voter were computer savvy, he or she could review the names ed by using the "edit" command. Some of the voters called to testify said they were aware of how to do that, and a witness for the state said improving the summary screen to show names in at-large elections might be a suggestion for an by the manufacturer.

Even though Waguespack ruled against Brouillette, she said she sympathized with people who experienced problems with the electronic machines: "I'm road kill on the information super highway."

Louisiana may be lucky it has only two parishes using the machines. While Livingston Parish uses antiquated machines that provide election-night printouts too faint to read, most parishes have machines that tally votes quite well and provide virtually instant, readable results.

With concerns about the machines nationally, and with all the problems the state experiences with machines in Tangipaphoa and Ascension, utilizing more of them seems to be buying trouble.

Newer isn't always better, as these machines attest.

The state would do well to ensure the bugs are worked out, that the machines provide accurate, irrefutable results and that all voters can cast their votes with confidence before more such machines are placed in service.