Diebold shows off voting machines

Critic of touch-screen method attends display for Summit officials

By Lisa A. Abraham  Akron Beacon Journal  17 May 2005

The Rev. John Beaty said his concern about ``stolen elections'' prompted him to attend Monday's demonstration of new voting machines in the Summit County Council chamber.

At the council's invitation, representatives of Diebold Inc. offered a three-hour demonstration of the Green-based company's touch-screen and optical-scan voting machines.

Beaty, a retired United Methodist pastor from Akron, took his time examining both machines and was just about sold on the idea of touch-screen voting until he had a conversation with Victoria Lovegren.

Lovegren, a mathematics professor at Case Western Reserve University, a computer expert and a voting activist from Cleveland Heights, said she has concerns about the touch-screen machine's security.

``It's cool, and it's easy to use, but I think there are more important criteria than those,''Lovegren said.

She said computer technology from a touch-screen machine is not as verifiable as optical scan a system that uses pencil-marked paper ballots that can later be checked by hand in a recount.

``You need a ballot that can be recounted,'' she said.

Touch-screen machines produce a paper receipt for voters similar to a credit card slip from a gasoline pump which the voter must read over and verify before the vote will be counted.

Lovegren said she believes the lower cost of the touch-screen machines is swaying many election boards, but she maintains that voter confidence is worth the extra money.

Diebold's touch-screen machines cost $2,700; optical-scan machines run $4,572.

Mark Radke, Diebold's marketing director, said optical-scan machines are more expensive because they contain more moving parts and because Diebold buys touch screens in bulk for the ATMs it makes and can thus can get them cheaper.

The county Board of Elections is to new voting machines at its May 24 meeting.