Voters tell lawmakers: County all the ballots

 By Kerra L. Bolton Asheville Citizens-Times Jan. 7, 2005

RALEIGH - Votes should count.

But some voters, like Guyene Florence, 60, of Asheville, aren't sure their ballots do get tallied, and they urged a special legislative committee Friday to make changes.

"With the high-tech machines they have today, I just think it's unfortunate that citizens can't be comfortable that their vote counts," Florence said. "But I believe that if people take the time to vote, then their vote should count."

The committee heard suggestions, such as adopting a system where voters receive a paper ballot printout they can examine for correctness and deposit into a secured ballot box for later review.

The discussion comes while two statewide elections remain unresolved. It also follows controversy in the last two national presidential elections involving the reliability of various voting methods, including electronic machines.

While most people agree there should be some type of verification process, many people disagree on the form it should take.

An effective system would somehow have to balance technology with privacy concerns, said Doug Chapin, director of Electionline.org, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization.

"We need to look at the election process through the eyes of the voter," Chapin told the committee. "Will it give them the peace of mind that they seek when they cast their ballots?"

George Keller, vice chairman of the Buncombe County Republican Party agreed and said local Republicans endorse proposals to spend money to retrofit voting machines with a printer that would allow voters to see a paper record of their ions before they leave the polls. Nevada used the system in November.

"At the end of the day, if someone wants to challenge a particular machine, you take the count that comes off electronically and count it the same way they count an absentee ballot," Keller said. "It's a torturous way to do it as a primary system of recounting, but as a backup it's clever."

Estimates vary, but it would cost anywhere from $500 to $1,000 per machine to retrofit the printers. Buncombe County has 497 voting machines manufactured by Sequoia Voting Systems, a California-based company. Buncombe County uses AVC Advantage voting machines, which allow for feedback to the voter, immediate copies of results and audit-trail reports and a visual display of vote totals for backup.

Even such bells and whistles don't provide complete security, said Trena Parker, Buncombe County's elections director.

"Having a paper system along with a direct record system is going to cause its own problem. How accurate are the eyes of humans as opposed to counting with a calculator?"

Contact Bolton at (919) 821-4749 or KBolton@CITIZEN- TIMES.com.

Make it better

Some suggestions to improve North Carolina's voting system:

Develop a voter education program to help people use the voting equipment we have.

Allow voters whose votes were lost, such as in Carteret County, to recast their ballots by mail or in person during a two-week period after canvass.

Counties using a particular system will have exactly the same hardware, firmware, software, changes and upgrades as other counties that use that system.

Require all counties to report immediately all voting equipment problems to the state elections board and coordinate solutions with the state office.

Invite voting machine manufacturers to demonstrate how they can develop and supply machines that will meet the standards.

SOURCE: Gary O. Bartlett, executive director of the N.C. State Board of Elections