Georgia's e-voting system will get biggest test on Tuesday

The Associated Press - ATLANTA

When Georgia voters go to the polls Tuesday, it will mark almost two years to the day since the state became the first to use touch-screen voting machines in all its precincts.

Even though the state's $54 million electronic-voting system already has proven successful in five statewide elections, experts say its first real test _ and the biggest test of its kind in the nation _ will come in next week's elections.

If the 159-county system holds up to the high number of voters expected in the presidential election, Georgia could become a model for other states modernizing their systems. As one of only two states with a statewide system in place _ Maryland is the other _ Georgia will be closely watched by others on Election Day.

"They're certainly looking," said Michael Shamos, a computer science professor from Carnegie Mellon University who spent 20 years certifying elections systems. "To go statewide in a state with that many counties is pretty ambitious. It's a very rigorous test of a voting system."

Georgia's Secretary of State Cathy Cox, the state's elections supervisor, declares her system "a resounding success" with only minor glitches reported in its five elections, most blamed on errors made by poll workers, not machines. Meanwhile, critics still complain about the lack of a paper trail and maintain that computer hackers could tamper with election results.

Regardless, when compared to states like Florida and Ohio _ where teams of lawyers are already lined up to challenge results from the presidential election _ Georgia's system has few naysayers.

Georgia's Legislature in 2002 approved the Cox-inspired plan to put the computerized voting machines in every polling place, replacing a patchwork of punchcards, optical scan machines and paper ballots that Cox says would have proved no more reliable than Florida's system if Georgia's totals had been as closely scrutinized in 2000.

Most of the state's voters are confident in the new system. A pair of polls indicate that 70 percent to 80 percent of Georgia voters prefer the machines and to the state's old voting methods.

Cox also cites a 2002 analysis of election results by her office that showed 0.8 percent of votes cast that year contained errors _ compared to 3.5 percent in 2000 and 4.8 percent in 1998.

"We saw dramatic improvement in accuracy in every county in Georgia, regardless of the type of equipment they had been using before," Cox said. "We are now accurately counting votes and we had not been doing that for years and years before."

The system still has its critics. A coalition of voting-rights groups _ some of them affiliated with minor political parties _ question the system's security.

"I have a background of some 20 years in computer programming. That's why I am completely suspect of the methodology used with these machines," said John Fortuin, a Decatur computer programmer who heads Defenders of Democracy, one of the Georgia-based groups.

Fortuin and others plan to "keep an eye out" for voting irregularities Tuesday in Georgia, even though Cox assured the system's critics that the computers aren't hooked up to open Internet lines and there is little room for error.

During this year's presidential preference primaries, two precincts _ one in Atlanta and one in Effingham County near Savannah _ had to briefly use paper ballots because voting equipment wasn't working. And some precincts reported confusion by poll workers that led to some people voting on the wrong ballots.

The biggest polling-place gaffe since Georgia's e-voting system was introduced came this summer and it was on some old-fashioned, paper absentee ballots. A typographical error in Laurens County caused a state Court of Appeals candidate's name to be misprinted _ leading a judge to throw out the July election and call for it to be held again this month.

Observers say there has been little controversy in Georgia over its e-voting system because every precinct in the state uses the same system, avoiding the main argument used in lawsuits against Florida. Also, since Georgia is not considered a battleground state in the presidential race, it is not receiving much media attention.

The state's politics also has played a role. Cox is a Democrat, while the owner of the company that makes Georgia's machines _ Diebold Election Systems _ is a Republican who once publicly said he'd do anything in his power to help re-elect President Bush.

"The fact that she's a Democrat took some of the partisan sting out of it," said Mike Digby, a political scientist at Georgia College & State University. "In some of the other states, the partisanship has come from the perception on the part of Democrats that it's Republicans trying to pull something over on them.

"That, of course, could not be validly argued here."

The state's top Democrats have said they support the system _ even after its first run in 2002 saw the surprise defeats of some of the state's top Democrats, including then-Gov. Roy Barnes, U.S. Sen. Max Cleland and longtime state House Speaker Tom Murphy.

The top complaint from critics of Georgia's machines is that they don't offer paper records. Without a printed version of each vote, critics say, there's no evidence for recounts if the results of an election are questioned.

Some international election observers issued a report last week recommending that Georgia add a paper trail to its system, but Cox says technology hasn't advanced to point where adding a paper ballot would be efficient.

Georgia officials recently visited Nevada _ the only state with a computerized voting system that creates paper ballots _ and found ballots printed on huge rolls of ticker tape-style paper with print so small that magnifying glasses had to be provided in each voting booth.

Using that system, a typical ballot in Atlanta-dominated Fulton County would be 52 inches long, Cox said.

"The bottom line on the paper issue is that we've not said, 'No, never,' " she said. "We've said, 'Let's wait for the technology to be developed that is much more user-friendly and much easier to deal with than what is available in the marketplace now.'"

Cox attributes most criticism of the state's system to a "small but very vocal group."

"They will not be satisfied until you go back to complete paper ballots, hand-marked and hand-counted," she said.

Digby says the broad support in Georgia for electronic voting will likely continue, unless some future election puts Georgia's balloting process in the spotlight.

"It's only when a handful of votes becomes the deciding factor that concerns about voting security are going to come to the forefront," he said.

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