Maryland Court Rejects E-Voting Challenge
Thu Sep 2, 2004 01:40 PM ET

By Andy Sullivan Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Maryland judge has dismissed a challenge to the state's electronic voting system and ruled that elections officials have made a reasonable effort to ensure that votes will be counted properly in November.

Voting activists who had sought to block the state from using touch-screen voting systems said on Thursday they had appealed the decision.

Activists with the group TrueVoteMD have sought to force the state to add printers to its Diebold Inc. machines to ensure that they record votes properly.

But Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge Joseph Manck said measures such as random testing provide a reasonable standard of security.

"Maryland has done what Maryland should do for the benefit of its voters to ensure the safety, confidence, reliability and minimizing of risk of this voting system," Manck said in an opinion issued on Wednesday.

Plaintiff Linda Schade said she and other members of TrueVoteMD were appealing the decision.

"Judge Manck did not respond to the facts," Schade said.

A state appeals court has agreed to hear the case on Sept. 14, Schade said.

Maryland State Elections Administrator Linda Lamone was not immediately available for comment.

The U.S. Congress provided funding to help states upgrade their voting systems after the Florida recount battle in 2000 cast an unflattering light on aging, paper-based methods.

Nearly one in three voters nationwide is expected to use electronic voting machines in the Nov. 2 presidential elections.

Election officials say the machines record votes more accurately than other methods, but a growing number of computer experts and activists saw they are prone to bugs and vulnerable to hackers.

The debate has prompted California and several other states to scale back plans to use the ATM-like machines.

In Nevada, electronic voting systems must print out each ballot on paper as it is cast to ensure that it is recorded properly an approach TrueVoteMD had sought to implement in Maryland.

Schade said voters should cast absentee ballots if they are uncomfortable with the electronic machines. The group also plans to keep an eye out for problems on Election Day, she said.