Touch-screen voting anomalies found
By Brad Bumsted   Pittsburgh Live
Saturday, April 23, 2005

HARRISBURG An expert hired by state elections officials discovered anomalies Friday as he retested touch-screen voting machines used in Beaver, Greene and Mercer counties.

Carnegie Mellon University computer science professor Michael Shamos said he couldn't say whether the Unilect Patriot voting machines passed the test. Shamos said he will have to review the videotape of a four-hour examination yesterday and other evidence before making a recommendation.

The Department of State, which hired Shamos, decertified the machines April 7 after they failed accuracy tests on Feb. 15.

Asked for an example of the anomalies he noticed, Shamos said at least five times he put his finger in the middle of a candidate's name on the computer screen and nothing registered.

Unilect President Jack Gerbel fought back.

"I am really concerned about the fairness of this particular exam," said Gerbel. "Now all of a sudden, it's us against them. I don't like it. I'm very upset about it."

Gerbel said the State Department's earlier decision damaged Unilect's reputation.

"We don't apply a perfection standard," Shamos said. The issue "on balance is whether it's safe for the voters of Pennsylvania."

Shamos said he could finish his evaluation by May, but that might be too late for some of the counties facing a time crunch for the May 17 primary.

Greene County commissioners have already decided to use paper ballots in the primary because of time constraints, said Francis Pratt, director of that county's election bureau.

Beaver County will use the Unilect machines only if their use is approved by Monday, said Dorene Mandity, director of the elections bureau there.

"There's no way I can wait past Monday. I can't. I'd never be ready," Mandity said.

Beaver County has a backup optical scan system that uses paper ballots, Mandity said.

Beaver, Greene and Mercer counties are the only ones in Pennsylvania using the Unilect machines, said Brian McDonald, spokesman for the Department of State.

The department yesterday was giving Unilect a second chance to prove the accuracy of its machines, which came under scrutiny because of a high "undercount" in Beaver, Butler and Mercer counties for the presidential election. The undercount is the difference between the number of voters who cast ballots and the total votes counted.

"We do not have high undercount vote in other states that use it," Gerbel said of the company's Unilect Patriot machine.