Voting machines are secure, officials tell a skeptical public

Potential hackers would have to travel to multiple precincts

By Gabrielle Crist, Rocky Mountain News
October 28, 2004

One voter asked Jefferson County election officials what would happen if he walked into a polling place wearing some really strong magnets.

Another dared them to let him try to hack into the machines.

 
Some skeptical voters are convinced that technological advances in voting machines are an invitation to fraud, but some experts insist that electronic voting machines do more to protect votes than the paper ballot system ever did.

In Colorado, paper ballots are used in only a handful of counties. Most places use more technologically advanced systems, and it's making many voters nervous.

They shouldn't be, according to Thad Hall, a political science professor at the University of Utah who has studied voting machines as part of the Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project.

The project began after the 2000 presidential election to study various voting machines and establish uniform guidelines.

There are basically three ways to vote these days:

• Paper ballot: Voters fill out a ballot and put it in a ballot box.

• Optical scan: Voters fill out the ballot with a pencil or pen. The ballot is then fed into a machine that counts the votes for each race.

• Electronic voting: Voters touch a computer screen to make their choices. They are then shown a screen summarizing their vote. If it's correct, they submit it. Denver uses a variation where voters press buttons to indicate their choices. Another variation allows voters to turn a knob, which highlights the ion.

Voting equipment varies in Colorado's 64 counties. Ballots are counted manually in Cheyenne, Crowley, Dolores Jackson, Kiowa, Lincoln and other less-populated counties. More than 20 counties use optical scanning equipment, and in Montrose County, punch cards are used.

Touch-screen electronic voting machines have received the most criticism, mostly because Diebold Voting Systems, one of the major manufacturers of the machines, has been in the hot seat in recent months.

In one case, Diebold failed to have its machines certified as required by law before using them in the California election. Diebold's CEO also came under fire for sponsoring a top-dollar Republican fund-raiser.

Even without the Diebold controversy, however, touch-screen machines would still be getting lots of attention, Hall said. Voters seem to be more satisfied when they actually get to place their ballot in a box, he said.

Studies, however, have shown that fraud is more likely with paper ballots than the electronic machines.

For one thing, there isn't a great deal of expertise needed to alter a paper ballot, or somehow throw one away. Electronic voting systems, on the other hand, are backed up several times and have built-in safeguards to prevent anyone from altering election results.

"It's pretty hard to lose an electronic ballot," Hall said.

And although some critics of electronic systems theorize that a sophisticated computer hacker could alter election results, Hall said that's unlikely. Each machine operates independently, with its own backup. If people wanted to alter election results, they would have to hack into numerous machines - and into each of the backups.

In order to significantly change election results, a person would have to travel from machine to machine, and from precinct to precinct, never catching the attention of election judges.

Electronic voting also eliminates ballot interpretation by election judges, Hall said.

If a voter uses a paper ballot and checkmarks a choice instead of filling in a circle, or inadvertently chooses two candidates in the same race, election judges have to try to interpret the voter's intent.

With electronic voting, the system won't allow voters to accidently choose two candidates in the same race when they should only vote for one.

Also, some systems show voters a "review screen" summary of their choices so they can double-check their choices and make any changes.

Susan Miller, Jefferson County's director of elections, swears by the touch-screen system. Jefferson County is one of only a handful of major metropolitan counties in the nation that uses touch-screen voting on a widespread basis.

Miller said the county spent $6.5 million on 1,800 machines in 2002. They were used in the 2002 midterm election and again in the August 2004 primary with no problems, she said.

Miller said there are numerous safeguards to prevent fraud or machine malfunction.

"We've got every safeguard in place," Miller said. "We've got checks and balances along the way."

Miller understands that voters are used to the paper system. But she points out that that system had its own weaknesses.

"When they used to put their ballot in a ballot box, they never knew where it went," Miller said.

Everything voters need to know

• What you need to vote: An approved form of identification will be requested of all voters. Those who don't have one may still vote a provisional ballot.

• What kind of ID is approved?

A valid Colorado driver's license

A valid Colorado ID card issued by the Colorado Department of Revenue

A valid U.S. passport

A valid ID card (with photo) issued by any agency of the federal, state or local government

A valid pilot's license

A valid U.S. military ID card (with photo)

A copy of a current utility bill, telephone bill, cable bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck

A document from a college or university containing at least the name, date of birth and residence address of the student elector

A certified copy of a U.S. birth certificate

A certified copy of naturalization documents

Students can also use an affidavit from the registrar at their public junior college, college or university in Colorado containing name, date of birth and residence of the student elector

• What happens if you forget your ID? Voters will be given a provisional ballot, which contains the same candidate and issue elections as a regular ballot.

• What is a provisional ballot? A provisional ballot is a paper ballot that is completed and placed in a secrecy envelope, much like an absentee ballot. Election judges check to ensure that the ballot envelope has been signed. If they miss some, the voter will be contacted by the county clerk's office after the election and asked to come to that office to sign the provisional ballot envelope.

After the election, officials will check each provisional ballot to ensure it was cast by a registered, legitimate voter. The provisional ballot is then counted like a regular ballot. Provisional ballots can delay the results of an election, as it often takes several days to check them.

• What happens if voters don't use the absentee ballot they requested? Voters who didn't receive a requested absentee ballot, or who lost it, may go to their precinct polling place and request a provisional ballot. Or such voters may vote on a replacement absentee ballot at the county clerk's office before 7 p.m. on Election Day.

• What if a voter tries to vote at the wrong precinct? The election judge should inform such voters they are at the wrong precinct and help them find the location of the correct precinct. Voters who do not wish to go to the correct polling place will be given a provisional ballot and can vote it, but it will count only for president.

• What if a voter registered to vote in a registration drive, but his or her name is not on precinct voter records? These people must vote using the provisional ballot. If the voter doesn't have ID, his provisional ballot will not count unless election officials can otherwise verify the voter's registration based on the databases available to them.

• What happens if a voter is still in line to vote at 7 p.m. on Election Day? Every voter in line at that time must be permitted to vote.