Electronic voting? Great but only with a paper trail
03/09/2005   The Courier

 Our View: Digital revolution in voting must leave paper trail.

The digital revolution once promised to usher in the paperless office.
But with the advent of electronic voting, paper all of a sudden is making a comeback - and not a moment too soon.
Montgomery County, along with others in Texas and throughout the country, is studying the use of electronic voting machines with an eye toward purchasing a limited number and installing them in time for the 2006 election, as required by the Help America Vote Act signed by President George W. Bush in 2002.
The county is required to have at least one machine installed in each voting precinct to assist disabled voters.
Even as we welcome the convenience and speed in tabulating results that electronic voting can bring, there are more than a handful of valid concerns that must be addressed before electronic voting becomes the standard for the United States.
Electronic voting once was welcomed as a way to bypass the problems associated with older, mechanical voting systems, including the paper ballots and "hanging chads" that sent the 2000 election into overtime.
But critics point out that California, Maryland and Ohio have launched investigations into problems with electronic voting in their states, including software problems, security gaps and use of software that was never certified by independent testing labs. Critics fear that without appropriate controls, electronic voting is ripe for abuse - even fraud.
One of the key safeguards being sought for electronic voting systems is the addition of a paper record to provide a physical representation and audit trail tracking each person's vote. That would help make the system more transparent for voters and help them to trust the systems.
Think of it. Would you be comfortable voting when you had no idea whether the computer recorded your vote accurately? At your local bank ATM, you can receive a paper audit of each of your transactions, so you know what has been recorded on your account. If we do that for our bank accounts, we should take at least as many precautions with voting, which is the fundamental activity of our democracy.
Local, state and federal officials need to ensure some basic protections against fraud and foul-ups in electronic voting, including mandating the use of paper audit trails.
Locally, members of the Montgomery County Election Equipment Task Force, made up of disabled and Hispanic residents, members of the county League of Women Voters and two members from each political party will be making a recommendation to county commissioners on the kind of electronic voting machines to purchase. They should recommend only those systems that have a paper trail.
Meanwhile, at the state and federal level, legislators likewise need to pass laws mandating that all electronic voting systems utilize voter-verified paper records. Digital voting is a great concept - as long as voters can be absolutely certain that their votes were counted correctly.