Electronic voting still has support
November 15,2004
JANNETTE PIPPIN
Jacksonville DAILY NEWS STAFF

BEAUFORT - When Carteret County residents go to the polls, their ballot is on a computer screen. They cast their vote with the touch of their finger.

Sally Smith of Morehead City prefers it to the traditional punch cards and paper ballots. But after an Election Night discovery of the loss of more than 4,000 Carteret votes, Smith questions whether there are adequate steps in place for tracking electronic votes.

"I'm for electronic voting, but it needs to be done with a back up," Smith said.

Joe DuBois of Morehead City also believes in keeping paper trails. It's a practice he uses when he works with important documents on his computers at home or where he volunteers at The History Place.

"There can be all sorts of weaknesses, and if you don't have a paper trail you have nothing," he said.

DuBois said there was not an adequate paper trail protecting his constitutional right to vote and that only increases his reservations about voting machines without a paper backup. "I don't trust a straight electronic ballot anymore," he said.

Smith and DuBois were among the 7,537 voters in Carteret County to cast a ballot during the early voting period held in October. The Carteret County Board of Elections and UniLect Corp. of California, the manufacturer of the county's electronic voting system, have since confirmed that 4, 438 of those votes are permanently lost because of an equipment problem.

Carteret County elections officials know who cast ballots during early voting and exactly whose votes went uncounted, but there is nothing to show how they voted.

The problem is the result of misinformation provided to the county about the storage capacity of a computer control unit used during early voting. The county believed the unit could store more than 10,000 ballots when the limit was actually 3,005.

UniLect President Jack Gerbel said his chief software engineer provided incorrect information to the county's technician but he said it was information given in good faith.

A change should have been made to the Carteret election master PC workstation three years ago that would have enabled the county's control units to store up to 10,428 ballots. The engineer provided the information believing that the change had been made, Gerbel said.

It is uncertain why that change was not made in Carteret, but Gerbel said it's a quick keystroke that could have prevented the problem. In Burke County, where the same system is used and the equipment revision level was properly set, all ballots were properly counted, he said.

"It's sad for me to say that is was a simple mistake because it's a far-reaching situation," Gerbel said.

While it doesn't appear likely that the outcome of county races would be impacted by the lost votes, there could be implications statewide. There are two very close races and recounts have already been requested.

The issue of Carteret County's lost votes will be discussed by the State Board of Elections on Nov. 23.

The League of Women Voters of Carteret County has its own plans to discuss the issue when its board meets Nov. 17, said President Anne Erikson.

"I think it's critical this never happens again, and we will search for a means to help make sure of that," she said.

Erikson said an incident like this only hurts efforts to get residents out to vote. "I think it's detrimental to our cause," she said.

Gerbel said he believes this incident is a fluke, and he stands by the performance of his electronic voting systems.

"We at UniLect sincerely regret this inadvertent mistake and apologize for our part in the loss of each voter's ballot," Gerbel said in a summary of facts of the situation. "This was UniLect's third presidential election. In hundreds of customer-run elections, our track record has been the best in the industry and no vote has ever been lost before."

Carteret County Board of Elections Secretary Sue Verdon remains confident in electronic voting, which has been used in Carteret County since 1996.

Verdon knows from her time on the Board of Elections and as a long-time poll worker that the old paper punch-card system had its share of problems. Until now, she said, the electronic voting has presented fewer difficulties.

"I've seen less problems voting with the electronic ballot the last nine years than ever before," she said.

DuBois said there are computerized systems that have paper trails, such as ones that scan a paper ballot or generate a printed copy of the electronic vote.

Gerbel also said a paper trail is possible with his systems, but he said the cost could be an issue. "It's not a cheap thing."