Lower court to hear arguments for voter paper trail
Group files civil suit filed in Anne Arundel Circuit Court, says backup system needed for touch-screen machines 
 
 By Gretchen Parker
The Associated Press
Originally published August 20, 2004, 4:28 PM EDT
ANNAPOLIS A group suing the state Board of Elections acknowledged today that its fight to eliminate Maryland's computerized voting machines by November has failed. But members still hope a Circuit Court judge will require elections officials to guarantee a paper trail.

The group, called the Campaign for Verifiable Voting, has filed a civil lawsuit in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court that seeks to require paper ballots in the Nov. 2 general election. The court is to begin hearing that case Wednesday.

The group had asked the Court of Appeals, Maryland's highest court, to force accelerated hearings. But judges on Thursday denied that request without comment.

"We filed a last-minute appeal to the Court of Appeals, which was sort of a Hail Mary," said Ryan Phair, attorney for the eight plaintiffs, which include State Sen. Andrew Harris, a Baltimore County Republican. "We expected to lose that, but we wanted to move forward."

In next week's hearings before Circuit Court Judge Joseph Manck in Annapolis, state elections administrator Linda Lamone will be called to testify, along with experts on both sides. The election board's attorneys will try to prove that Diebold Election Systems' touch-screen machines are reliable, while the campaign's attorneys will argue the machines can be corrupted by hackers and don't do enough to guarantee accuracy.

With less than three months left until the general election, the plaintiffs realize the possibility of decertifying Maryland's 16,000 machines is slim, said Linda Schade, a founder of the campaign. But she hopes Manck will rule in her group's favor and force the state to use paper ballots read by optical scanners.

Another option would be to require parallel monitoring of the voting machines, Phair said, which would test the accuracy of the machines on Election Day by rotating and testing them constantly.

"What we're talking about now is mitigating the risk of moving forward on the machines," Phair said. "The state has run out the clock on a complete remedy."

Some 50 million Americans about 30 percent of voters are expected to vote electronically on Nov. 2. But concerns about the ATM-like machines have grown since computer scientists began criticizing them as vulnerable to hackers and mechanical failure.

Meanwhile, Maryland moves forward in preparing an electronic ballot, Lamone said Friday.

"We're in the middle of preparing the ballot for the November election," she said, "so we're moving forward as we must."