Consider paper trail, but don't trash system
Palm Beach Post Editorial

Monday, November 08, 2004

Incoming Supervisor of Elections Arthur Anderson promised to provide a paper trail to people worried about losing their votes in cyberspace. To do that, he suggested last week, the county might scrap its $14 million electronic voting system for optical scan ballots, like those used by absentee voters.

Explaining why he'd consider such a wasteful switch, Dr. Anderson showed a poor grasp of the facts. He confused undervotes with machine error when he declared that electronic voting has six times the error rate of optical-scan balloting. And he is unfamiliar with audits of printer-supported touch screens in Nevada that show no errors. It's fine to ask why voters skip races at a much higher rate on touch-screen machines. But a reasonable answer is that voters still are familiarizing themselves with electronic voting. In Tuesday's election, 0.5 percent of Palm Beach County voters failed to record a vote for president. That "error rate" is much closer to Leon County's optical-scan rate of 0.2 percent than the "six times" figure cited by Dr. Anderson and his political mentor, U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Delray Beach. The difference could be a matter of voter education.
 
Dr. Anderson said he's willing to consider the pros and cons of a switch, even as he pursues adding printers to the county's touch-screen machines at a cost of $3.2 million. But if he wants to change systems, why buy printers? And if education is an issue, why throw out a system voters are learning for a brand-new one?

Optical-scan ballots must be read at the precinct while voters wait, which could cause delays during rush hour at crowded polling places. That would mean the expense of 700 readers, or more if needed to handle crowds. In a county as large as Palm Beach, Dr. Anderson needs to consider the sheer weight and cost of paper ballots.

Dr. Anderson admits he doesn't know for sure whether optical-scan balloting is better but ventures that "the chances are the optical-scan system is going to be more accurate." The elections supervisor has to consider the effect uncertainty will have on a\\n already skeptical public. While he's studyingelections have to go on, starting early next year. How can he ask voters to have faith in a system the elections supervisor doesn't trust?

To get elected, Dr. Anderson capitalized on the fact that lots of voters didn't like anything about Theresa LePore. She's going to be gone now. The key isn't the system she leaves behind but whether Dr. Anderson can run it better.