Electronic Voting: Voters will like touch screens, but it's a leap of faith

Opinion     Salt Lake Tribune    12 September 2005

Now that Utah voters have been placed in the tender care of Diebold Election Systems, they all should say a prayer.
   Not because they should believe the theory floating around the Internet that the company is some sort of Christian fundamentalist conspiracy to throw elections to the Republicans. But there are some unresolved problems with the paper trail that the touch-screen voting machines are required by law to provide.
   California has reported difficulties with paper jams and screen freezes, and veteran election officials say that if the paper trail had to serve as the basis for a recount, it would be hard to read and might not meet the legal definition of a ballot.
   Diebold still does not have a machine available that could recount the votes from the paper trail, according to Salt Lake County Clerk Sherrie Swensen.
   That is why Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert's decision to Diebold as the provider of touch-screen voting machines statewide was a leap of faith. If that faith turns out to be misplaced, he can kiss his political career goodbye.
   If the touch-screen machines work properly, however, voters probably will like them. As with any technological change, though, there's a break-in period where people will have to overcome their innate fear of the unknown. If you've ever changed computer systems at home or in the office, you know all about this. Remember the first time you went to an ATM?
   The good thing about the machines is that they are extremely simple to use. Their advantage over conventional forms of voting, including paper ballots and punch cards, is that they warn a voter when she or he has made a mistake, such as voting for two candidates in a race where only one is appropriate (overvoting) or when a race is skipped (undervoting). It also allows visually impaired voters to cast ballots independently and privately using auditory prompts.
   Unlike an optical scan system, in which the voter fills in little circles on a paper ballot with a special pen, the touch-screen system is less liable to voter error.
   In Salt Lake County, polling places will have touch-screens; an optical scan system will be used for absentee and provisional ballots. Touch-screen systems can store multiple ballots in several languages, which could make possible early voting at satellite polling stations that could serve voters from any precinct.
   It's a brave new world.