Voter advocates make a case for a paper trail

   Supporters of a paper trail for electronic voting machines ran full-page advertisements on Thursday in newspapers in Maryland and Florida, calling for a tangible record of each ballot cast in the November election.
    Ads in the (Baltimore) Sun and the Palm Beach Post show a touch-screen computer from Diebold Election Systems, the Ohio-based company that makes Maryland's machines, sprouting monster fangs, its screen displaying a time bomb and reading, "System Error! Vote Data Lost."
    Diebold and Maryland elections officials say the machines are safe and never have recorded an inaccurate vote.
    The Maryland ad implores state Delegate Sheila Ellis Hixson and Sen. Paula C. Hollinger — key Democratic members of committees considering paper trail legislation — to support their cause.
    "There's such an easy, reasonable, inexpensive solution to this problem," said Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream and president of TrueMajority.org, the advocacy group funding the ads. "Just have the machine print out a receipt, just like an ATM does."
    Supporters want a "voter-verified paper ballot," meaning each voter would get a copy confirming the way he had voted, which he then would turn over to a poll worker.
    David Bear, a Diebold spokesman, said the company's machines have built-in printers, used to print a paper audit of the election at its conclusion. He said it's technologically possible for the machines to be modified to provide a piece of paper showing someone had voted, although it had yet to be done.
    Mrs. Hixson, Montgomery Democrat, said Maryland lawmakers didn't think they could put printers in each precinct by November.
    "We don't have time," she said Thursday.
    Mrs. Hollinger, Baltimore County Democrat, said lawmakers wanted to "at least put a printer or a couple of printers in each polling place" for the November election.
    After the March 2 primary — the first Maryland election to use all touch-screen machines — state officials reported scattered problems, largely blamed on human error, but declared the election a success.
    Maryland is spending $55.6 million to move toward an entirely electronic system. Linda Lamone, state elections administrator, said the state's 16,000 electronic voting machines performed well, and she anticipates they'll do so again in November.