Voting machines rejected
TOUCHSCREEN: The apparatus lacks ability to produce paper trail.
By LISA DEMER
Anchorage Daily News

(Published: November 1, 2004)

The state won't use 100 new touchscreen voting machines in Tuesday's election because of increasing concerns about their lack of a paper trail and vulnerability, said Laura Glaiser, director of the state Divisions of Elections.

The state spent almost $300,000 to buy the machines last year. But unless they can be upgraded with the addition of a paper trail, they likely will never be used, she said.

"I have to look at the integrity of the voting process," Glaiser said.

An explosion of reports concerning "all the things that could go wrong" emerged after the state purchased the machines made by Ohio-based Diebold Election Systems, she said. The state originally picked Diebold for compatibility, because the company also makes the Accu-Vote machines used in many precincts, Glaiser said.

Around the country, critics say the paperless touchscreen machines are subject to tampering and fraud. They argue for paper receipts that voters could check.

"In a recount situation, I don't have a way to prove for certain that every individual vote cast was tallied," Glaiser said. But she said she was "not asserting there is anything wrong with those machines."

People with disabilities, including the blind, had advocated machines that would enable them to vote without help. A voice-guidance feature would allow blind voters to use the Diebold machines and vote in private for the first time.

The federal Help America Vote Act requires one touchscreen machine in every voting precinct for elections starting in 2006, and Alaska elections officials are looking at other suppliers, she said.

A state law passed this year requires a paper trail but gives a two-year grace period, which means the machines could have been used.

Diebold also has made headlines on another level. Its chief executive, Walden O'Dell, sent out a fund-raising letter last year saying he was committed to helping battleground state Ohio deliver its electoral votes for Bush. The company now bars executives from political activity, according to a Friday story in USA Today that also said the company planned to offer a paper trail.

On its Web site, the company says that voting is secure on touchscreen machines. The image of each ballot cast can be captured and printed on standard paper for a recount, the company says.