Voting backup plan is ready

County will turn to optical scan method if touch-screen equipment isn't certified in time

By JOHN MARTIN Courier & Press August 22, 2004

Vanderburgh County and its voting machine vendor are developing a backup plan for the Nov. 2 election in case the county's new equipment isn't certified in time.

If the plan must be used, voting in the general election will be done differently than it was in the May primary.

Touch-screen equipment introduced in the primary worked effectively, but it still does not meet a federal certification standard. The equipment can't be used in the general election unless it is certified by Oct. 1.

Votes in November would be cast by a method called optical scan under the backup plan, Vanderburgh County Clerk Marsha Abell said Friday.

Voting by optical scan involves marking a paper ballot with a pencil or pen and then sliding it into a machine. A candidate is ed by marking a circle beside the candidate's name with a pencil or pen.

Vanderburgh County's mailed absentee ballots are already tabulated with the optical scan method.

Abell said she was told recently by an Election Systems & Software official that the chances of Vanderburgh County's touch-screen machine software being certified in time for the general election is "85 percent."

Vanderburgh and three other Indiana counties obtained the touch-screen software before the primary under the presumption that it was certified.

After learning the software was not certified, the Indiana Election Board gave Vanderburgh, Johnson, Wayne and Henry counties a waiver, enabling them to use the equipment for the primary.

Since the waiver doesn't apply for the general election, Election Systems & Software posted a $10 million bond to ensure that the affected counties have certified voting systems to use.

Abell said Election Systems & Software has set its own deadline of Sept. 16 to get Vanderburgh County's version of touch-screen software certified.

"They've sent the whole package to the (testing) lab. Now they're waiting to see if that's acceptable," Abell said.

Before the primary election, Abell's office conducted several public demonstrations on the touch-screen equipment. There were no major technical problems reported with the election.

The general election, however, promises much higher turnout, with a presidential election, governor's race and several other federal, state and county races. Abell said there will be another voter education effort before the general election, but it can't begin until the county knows which voting method it will use.

"Obviously this is a little inconvenient, but I feel comfortable with the fact they have given us a contingency plan," Abell said.

Congress has required communities to get rid of punch-card ballots and similar voting methods by 2006. But instances of system malfunctions throughout the United States have sparked some criticism and concern about computerized voting. Members of the League of Women Voters, for example, voted at their summer convention to rescind their leaders' earlier endorsement of paperless voting machines in light of some reported snafus.

A Maryland organization called the Campaign for Verifiable Voting earlier this month put together a demonstration called "Computer Ate My Vote" day. Events in 19 states called upon governors and election officials to pass legislation requiring that touch-screen machines produce a paper record of votes cast.

Manufacturers of touch-screen equipment promote it as secure and able to give fast, accurate counts of thousands upon thousands of votes.

Vanderburgh County Democratic Party Chairman Stephen Melcher said both the optical scan or touch-screen voting methods "are fine with me," but he said one advantage to the optical scan method is that individual votes can be tracked with paper.

Brad King, co-director of the Indiana Election Division, said Election Systems & Software filed contingency plans for the fall election last week for all four counties with uncertified touch-screen software.

The version of touch-screen software Vanderburgh County has is being tested by Wyle Laboratories. Abell said one issue explored involves the vote "recap" screen that is shown before the voter locks in his choices.

In a race in which more than one candidate can be chosen - such as the one Nov. 2 for Vanderburgh County Council at-large - the recap screen will show only the number of candidates that a voter ed, not the names.

"It will say for example that you voted for three, but not who they were," Abell said. If the equipment is certified, those candidates' names will be shown on the recap screen.