Diebold touts voting security

Summit elections board officials raise concerns as final decision nears

By Carl Chancellor   Akron Beacon Journal   03 May 2005

With the deadline looming for a final decision on new electronic voting machines, the Summit County Board of Elections is still weighing its options.

Monday morning the four-member board, along with the elections board's senior staffers, intently watched a demonstration of two machines one a computerized touch-screen system and the other an optical-scan system both manufactured by Green-based Diebold Inc.

Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, the state's top election official, has decreed that Ohio's 88 counties have until May 24 to decide between the two Diebold systems. They must have the new voting technology in place for the November 2005 election.

It was clear Monday from the questions of board members that system security is the uppermost concern.

Board member Alex Arshinkoff, a Republican, pressed the Diebold representatives again and again on the issue of vote integrity.

``You're telling me that board of election employees and Diebold employees could not conspire to fix the (vote) count.... There is no way to rig an election?'' Arshinkoff asked.

Diebold marketing director Mark Radke insisted that the company's electronic voting technology is tamper-proof. He said the numerous layers of security and human and electronic safeguards make it ``virtually impossible'' to corrupt the vote.

Diebold's director of research and development, Patrick Green, said any attempt to fix an election would require ``collusion on a grand scale'' involving large numbers of board of elections and Diebold employees, and would require Democrats and Republicans plotting together.

``And even then they would be caught,'' Green said.

At one point during the one-hour question-and-answer session, Arshinkoff took the opportunity to give a history lesson and invoked the name of a Summit County political legend, the late Ray C. Bliss. He said Bliss was adamant about ``giving the voter a ballot'' to look at.

``He didn't trust the lever machines. He wanted to stay with the ballot. That's why he went with the punch cards they looked like a paper ballot,'' said Arshinkoff, explaining why Summit County uses the punch-card voting system instead of the automated voting machines that employ a series of small levers.

Radke noted that the optical-scan machine requires a voter to use a pencil to mark paper ballots. The pencil marks that are made on a ballot of sorts are then read and tabulated by a scanner. The technology is similar to what is used in standardized testing.

In addition, Radke pointed out that the touch-screen machines can now be equipped with a thermal printer, which allows voters to see a paper printout of their votes.

Paper printouts sparked another spate of concerns with questions about the secrecy of the ballot.

``There is no way to tie a number on a paper receipt to an individual voter,'' Radke said in response to concerns the two could be linked.

Despite being peppered with questions, Radke left the board meeting pleased.

``I think it went extremely well. I understand they need to carefully evaluate both systems,'' he said.

The initial cost of going electronic for Summit will be about $5.6 million for the touch-screen system and $4.8 for the optical-scan system. Federal money allocated through the Help America Vote Act will cover the majority of the tab.