Quest for reform of elections falters in House

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by Steven T. Dennis   Business Gazette  Apr. 7, 2005

ANNAPOLIS Hopes for major election reform crashed and burned last week when bills requiring upgrades to the state's voting machines and public financing of campaigns failed on the House floor.

Advocates for voter-verified paper ballot receipts killed a bill by Del. Jon S. Cardin (D-Dist. 11) of Baltimore that would have required an upgrade of the Diebold system to provide some form of vote verification, but left the particulars of the improvements up to a committee.

Del. Karen S. Montgomery (D-Dist. 14) of Brookeville, whose own paper ballot bill has remained in committee, said she opposed Cardin's bill after it became clear that it would not guarantee voter-verified paper receipts.

But Cardin said advocates for upgrades missed their only chance to mandate changes to the system.

"It's dead," he said.

Bills that would study the issue are still percolating through the legislature, but advocates are not pleased.

Paper ballot advocate Linda Schade of TrueVoteMd.org called Cardin's bill a "decoy" and fretted that the bills could let lawmakers off the hook.

"It put it squarely back in the hands of our friend, [state Elections Administrator] Linda Lamone, and we wanted legislators to be accountable," Schade said. "Why aren't they passing the paper trail bill?"

Schade and others are suing Lamone, a Democrat, over the voting system.

Schade also was none too happy that the House was nearing passage of the Senate's "Linda Lamone for life" bill that would make it almost impossible for her to be deposed.

"I can't believe they are getting away with that," Schade said. "Bald partisanship is not good for democracy."

The bill already passed the Senate along party lines.

Meanwhile, another Cardin bill, this one installing a public campaign finance law for the 2010 elections, was sent back to the Ways and Means Committee to die after it became apparent it would die on the House floor. Lawmakers and challengers would have received tens of millions in taxpayer dollars for campaigning if the bill had passed. Progressive Maryland and Common Cause Maryland vow to keep lobbying for the bill next year.

Other election reforms, including an early voting bill backed by Senate leaders and a voter protection measure backed by House leaders, have made it to the other chamber.