BALLOT BALKS: Switch to optical-scan voting raises concerns
Monday, August 16, 2004
By Barton Deiters
The Grand Rapids Press

Don't tell Bill Wysocki that voting is more trouble than it's worth.

He waited at the polls in Walker where they ran out of ballots not once, but twice.

Wysocki was voting for the first time in three years at Kenowa Intermediate School on Three Mile Road NW during the primary earlier this month.

He was drawn to the polls to vote down proposals that would have raised his taxes to build a new zoo and to increase library services.

After waiting an hour for ballots to be photocopied, he found he was at the wrong voting station minutes before the polls were to close. He made it in time to the Walker Station School on Richmond Court NW, only to find they too were out of ballots.

About 15 minutes after the polls were to close at 8 p.m., he finally got to help bring down the zoo and library millages.

"I think it was a fluke that they ran out," said Wysocki and he won't be discouraged from voting in November.

But with 16 precincts running out of ballots, election officials aren't sure what can be done to avoid similar problems in the future. Like Wysocki, most conclude that Aug. 3 was a "fluke."

In Kent County, there are three systems used at the polls:

The county's largest cities Grand Rapids and Wyoming use the punch card system made infamous in the 2000 presidential election in Florida where the outcome is still the subject of argument. It was there that "hanging chad" became a part of the national vocabulary.

Plainfield Township uses a high-tech touch-screen system that is supposed to eliminate confusion, but is criticized by some for being subject to hacking and leaving little in terms of a paper trail.

The rest of Kent County and all of Ottawa County use a ballot that is read by an optical scanner. It is more expensive, and by state law it will become the system used everywhere by 2006.

"Optical scan is a proven system that incorporates the safeguards necessary to ensure election integrity," Michigan Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land said in May.

Land's decision was prompted by the Helping America Vote Act, signed by President George W. Bush in October 2002, in response to the presidential election debacle of 2000. Gov. Jennifer Granholm signed legislation in April that would bring Michigan into compliance with the federal requirements.

But while the punch card has been subject to the most criticism, it was the optical scanner systems in Walker, Grattan Township and Kentwood that experienced problems.

In 16 precincts, ballot shortages caused long waits as clerks scrambled to photocopy ballots. Those ballots had to be hand counted, which delayed totals well into the next morning.

A combination of events caused the shortages. High-profile tax requests and competitive Republican state representative races led to higher-than-normal turnout for a primary race.

Clerks say many of those who came out had little or no experience with primary voting and ruined ballots by voting for both Democrats and Republicans.

"People have to learn to follow directions," said Sandra Wisniewski, city clerk for Walker, where a third of the city's nine precincts ran out of ballots. "Even though you explain everything, people still vote in both sections."

Walker had a 32 percent turnout the city usually sees 15 to 20 percent of people show up at the primary. Wisniewski said if not for the large number of spoiled ballots, there would have been enough.

Clerks base the number of ballots they print on past results. Many order ballots at 150 percent of the last election and usually toss out thousands of unused ballots, according to Susan deSteiguer, elections director for Kent County.

"In hindsight, we wish we'd ordered more ballots, but that's nobody's fault," said deSteiguer.

But why should shortages occur only where the optical scan is used? The answer comes down to pennies.

DeSteiguer said with optical scanners, individual ballots must be printed for each precinct. In the punch-card system, a generic card can be used from one election to the next, regardless of precinct or even city.

Those punch cards can be purchased at a cost of four for a penny; the optical scan ballots used Aug. 3 were around 30 cents each.

While cost-conscious clerks can afford to order boxes of punch cards with abandon, throwing away unused optical scan ballots seems like putting dollar bills on the bonfire.

"Can we predict this in the future?" deSteiguer asked. "Clerks will increase the number of ballots ordered for November."

The optiscan ballot scramble has the punch-card users watching with a mixture of relief it wasn't them and apprehension over what the future holds.

"When I heard about the shortages, I thought, 'That can't happen to us here,'" said Grand Rapids City Clerk Terri Hegarty. But that feeling of satisfaction is not long for this world.

Hegarty hopes to introduce the optical scanning system to Grand Rapids voters with the school election next June.

Hegarty is trying to remain positive about having to replace punch card machines that the city bought only six years ago at a cost of $742,000.

She says the school election, which typically draws about 10 percent of voters, will be a low-impact way to roll out the optiscan and work out the kinks before it is used in a gubernatorial or presidential race.

Hegarty says she is resigned to having to move from punch cards, which she says have worked just fine, to the more costly optical scanners which typically provide no more accuracy than well-maintained punch card systems.

Less serene about going to optical scanning is Plainfield Township Clerk Susan Morrow. Since 1995, Plainfield has used a touch-screen computerized system that she says is the most accurate and economical available.

Morrow says while voters can look over both Democratic and Republican ballots, they are blocked from cross-voting.

"They can't spoil a ballot," Morrow said. "There's no waste."

Plainfield had 29 percent of its voters show up at the last election, twice the typical primary turnout, and there were no delays, Morrow said. She says Land's order will not improve voting there.

"I was very disappointed with the decision," said Morrow. She says concerns about a lack of paper trail are unfounded because paper receipts are printed. Also, individual votes are encrypted and kept in the system, where they can be retrieved in case of a recount or other problems.

Morrow says there is pressure on state legislators to protect the touch-screen system used in only five municipalities statewide and she hopes an exemption will be enacted.