Paperless-vote support recalled

League of Women Voters s support of machines at convention

By Rachel Konrad, Associated Press

The League of Women Voters rescinded its support of paperless voting machines Monday, after hundreds of angry members argued that paper ballots were the only way to safeguard elections from fraud, hackers and computer malfunctions.

About 800 delegates who attended the nonpartisan league's biennial convention in Washington voted to adopt a resolution that supports "voting sys-

tems and procedures that are secure, accurate, recountable and accessible."

That relatively neutral stance was a sharp change from last year, when leaders endorsed paperless terminals as reliable alternatives to antiquated punch card and lever systems. About 30 percent of the electorate will use paperless touch-screen vot-

ing machines in the November election.

 

The league's support of paperless systems infuriated members from chapters around the country particularly in Silicon Valley, where computer scientists say the systems jeopardize elections. Legitimate recounts are impossible without paper records of every vote cast, they say.

League members who have been lobbying for months for the national leadership to change its position said the revision was welcome if not overdue.

"My initial reaction is incredible joy and relief," said computer scientist Barbara Simons, 63, past president of the Association for Computing Machinery and a league member from a chapter in Palo Alto. "This issue was threatening to split the league apart. ... The league now has a position that I feel very comfortable supporting."

Bev Harris, an outspoken critic of paperless systems and a league member from Seattle, emphasized that the league fell short of endorsing a paper trail. Voter rights advocates are demanding the machines produce a receipt to be kept in a county lock box for use in recounts.

"There are bills in Congress that would probably pass if the league came out in a strong way," said Harris, author of "Black Box Voting: Ballot Tampering in the 21st Century." "They didn't give us enough oomph to give us a lot more traction on the legislative front."

Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., who introduced legislation last year that would require a paper trail for all types of voting systems, praised the league's change of heart.

"There's a grass roots groundswell across the country to make sure our elections are auditable this November," Holt said in an e-mail. "The decision by the League of Women Voters is just another sign of its grow-

ing strength."

League president Kay J. Maxwell, re-elected Monday to a two-year term, was not available to comment. The league's five-day conference ends Tuesday, and leaders are expected to publicly discuss the new position later this week, said spokeswoman Lyndsey Farrington.

Several big vendors have touch-screens with printers, but no models have been certified for use in elections by independent testing authorities. Sequoia Voting Systems Inc., which has a model almost through the certification process, plans to install touch screens with "VeriVote" printers in Nevada before the November election, said spokesman Alfie Charles.

"We think elections can be sound and secure with or with-

out a paper trail," Charles said. "But we look forward to providing both options for election officials across the country."

The league initially endorsed paperless computers, which can be equipped with headsets and programmed in multiple languages, because they make voting easy for the blind and illiterate and for people who do not speak English. But it is not the first political group to change course on the hotly contested issue. Grass-roots lobbying group Common Cause changed its stance in May because of questions about reliability and accuracy.

"There's a thought process that we had to go through, and I think the league's had to do the same thing," said Chellie Pingree, president and CEO of Washington-based Common Cause. "Frankly, the public opinion has long surpassed the opinions of the league. ... Their consensus is catching up with the pressure members have been putting on them for quite a while."

The American Association of People with Disabilities and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights have endorsed paperless systems despite questions about the software and hardware, and concerns about the certification process for the equipment built by Diebold Inc., Election Systems & Software Inc., Sequoia Voting Systems Inc. and other big companies.

Earlier this year, California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley banned the use of a Diebold system.

after he found uncertified software and other problems that "jeopardized" the outcome of elections in several counties. At least 20 states have introduced legislation requiring a paper record of every vote cast.

In a January special election for a Florida state house seat, 134 people using paperless voting terminals in Broward County failed to cast votes for any candidate. The race was decided by a margin of 12 votes. Without a paper trail, it's unclear why some voters didn't candidates.

In North Carolina's 2002 general election, a software bug d 436 electronic ballots from six paperless machines in two counties. ES&S, which built the terminals, determined that the machines erroneously thought their memories were full and stopped counting votes, even though voters kept casting ballots.

"The league's new stance is a huge development," said Avi Rubin, a Johns Hopkins computer expert who discovered security flaws in Diebold software. "Their initial position was uninformed. It's encouraging to see that people come around, rather than stubbornly stick to a position that was misguided."