Repairing elections

N.C. needs paper record of ballots, uniformity, training

Opinion   Charlotte Observer   06 December 2004

The Nov. 2 election left North Carolina residents confronting a stark fact: Our system of voting needs repair and reform.

In many places, the elections system held up admirably under near-record turnout and a clear enthusiasm for early voting. But in other places, it failed. That last word is key, because if the elections system fails anywhere, it fails everywhere.

Consider the record:

More than 4,000 votes vanished Nov. 2 in Carteret County when poll workers continued to try to store them in voting machines after those machines set improperly by the maker reached capacity. That failure left the state scheduling a convoluted special election that will surely land it in court.

The findings of a state Board of Elections probe into multiple irregularities in Gaston County are expected Tuesday. Poll workers there somehow missed 13,000 votes in the unofficial count. They found an additional 75 votes in a recount. Then records showed discrepancies between the number of ballots cast and the number of voters recorded in more than half of the precincts.

Given such failures, the state must confront the need for reform without delay. The work begins when members of a special General Assembly committee on electronic voting meet Dec. 13. Four issues demand urgent attention:

? The need for paper back-up of electronic voting statewide. North Carolina should look at Nevada, where in November voters became the first in the nation to cast ballots on computers that printed paper records of electronic ballots. Such a system is not cheap Nevada paid some $9.3 million. But the cost of losing public confidence in elections is far greater.

? The need for more uniformity in voting machines statewide. Counties currently have wide latitude, leaving voters and poll workers to sort out a patchwork of technology. No single machine will work for every county. Yet the state can and should establish three or four proven ions from which counties can choose.

? The need for more intensive, mandatory training for elections officials and poll workers. In November, state Elections Director Gary Bartlett announced statewide "boot camps" on election laws and procedures will begin next year at 13 community colleges. Yet that training will be voluntary, and that's not good enough.

? Finally and politicians will not like this part the need to better fund elections. Technology costs money. Training on and maintenance of increasingly sophisticated machines costs money. The state must take a direct role in providing the ongoing education and the funding needed.

Talk will not accomplish reform. Nor will study. Action is required. Members of the special legislative committee should greet the General Assembly when it convenes in January with a proposal in hand. Lawmakers must respond, and make election reform a funding priority in 2005. The integrity of North Carolina's election system is at stake.