The vote is in for a new voting machine: Freeholders choose the Sequoia Advantage for Essex elections

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

By ERICA ZARRA
of The Montclair Times

After six months of debate and extended deadlines, a decision has finally been reached in the battle of the ballot box builders.

The Essex County Board of Chosen Freeholders has opted to purchase 700 touch-screen machines from Sequoia Voting Systems, which has manufactured nearly 64 percent of all election equipment in New Jersey.

The touch-pads will replace the county?s traditional lever models and bring Essex into compliance with state and federal regulations.

This summer, acting Gov. Richard Codey introduced a law mandating that, by 2008, all electronic ballot boxes must include voter-verifiable printed receipts, which enable citizens to double-check their ions before officially casting them. This aims to reduce questions should a recount be needed.

The electronic machines must also abide by the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), which stipulates they have a paper recount, disability access, and multiple-language capabilities.

Of the county?s $6.5 million purchase price, about $4.8 million will be reimbursed through federal funds.

?I am very satisfied with Sequoia?s performance,? Superintendent of Elections Carmen P. Casciano said, who made his official recommendation of the model on Oct. 31. ?It performs, is user-friendly, and works effectively. And you don?t have to be a computer wizard to work it.?

But not everyone was sold.

Freeholders Ralph Caputo, Carol Clark and Muriel Shore contested the purchase, saying they had not received sufficient time to review the contract with Sequoia of Oakland, Calif.

They were not alone.

Dozens of political activists packed the Freeholder Chambers in Newark on Nov. 10 to protest the purchase, claiming that Sequoia technology is outdated and therefore vulnerable to computer malfunctions.

Many of those in attendance were from the Essex County Task Force on Voting, a citizens group of concerned residents from Montclair and other municipalities. The group has campaigned for months against the Sequoia Ad-vantage.

?Their decision had no particular technical, nor cost-effective point of view,? Task Force member and Montclair resident Katherine Joyce said. ?It is almost certain they had not even read through the contract before endorsing it.?

The Task Force is concerned that the Sequoia Advantage needs a full upgrade to meet new requirements. The members allege it has an 18-year-old internal processor, poor accessibility, an insufficient height adjustment, and is vulnerable to hacking.

The group also claims retrofitting about 700 Sequoia Advantages with a paper documentation device is expected to cost an additional $1.4 million.

For months the activists have been vocal in wanting Essex County to purchase a voting machine that can be easily and inexpensively d, and provides a voter-verified, auditable paper record as required by New Jersey law. They question whether Sequoia has these qualifications.

The Task Force prefers the Liberty Elections Systems? LibertyVote, which meets federal and recently enacted New Jersey requirements, but has only been used in Europe.

After briefly favoring the Liberty model, Casciano renewed his support of the Sequoia Advantage.

This was mainly due to his dislike for the Liberty?s under-vote function. On that machine, if a person has four options and only casts three ballots, then the machine does not immediately count the ions until reconfirmed by the voter. Casciano worried that people would push the buttons and leave without realizing they must still verify their choices.

The superintendent said he would not a voting machine until after Liberty Elections Systems corrected the under-vote feature. The company did this and applied for state certification on Nov. 9, the day before the freeholder vote.

Still, Casciano proceeded with the Sequoia contract.

?The situation remains that Liberty is still not New Jersey-approved,? the superintendent said. ?Maybe they will be tomorrow or some time this year, but for now the Sequoia machine meets all state and federal requirements.?

Although ing an electronic voting machine was the freeholder board?s decision, Essex County officials fostered a partnership with Task Force members while researching the different models.

Freeholders attended work sessions, interviewed state election officials and, on July 27, organized a demonstration, prompted by the Task Force, in which three voting-machine manufacturers competed for the Casciano?s consideration.

?It seems clear that all of the effort and time we put in to help the freeholders make a more informed decision was really just a show,? Joyce said. She said the freeholders approved a contract for Sequoia that was almost identi-cal to the one Casciano prepared earlier in 2005, prior to launching the dialogue with the activists.

Joyce claimed Casciano had assured her in a telephone conversation the morning of Nov. 10 that the contract would not be on the freeholders? agenda that night. A later call from the freeholders? clerk informed Joyce otherwise, but still amounted to activists maintaining they had received less than 12 hours notice.

Casciano disputed Joyce?s account. The superintendent maintained he did not know the contract would be on the freeholder agenda until the night before the meeting, and once he found out, he called Joyce to inform her.

?Katherine and I have worked together with integrity through this whole process,? Casciano said. ?Why would I lie to her when she?d find out [about the contract] in a few hours anyway? I believe you tell the truth and then deal with it. To hear her saying I was deceitful is disappointing.?

If the Task Force believes the New Jersey attorney general misinterpreted the law, then the superintendent rec-ommended the Task Force take legal action. The group has started a fund for legal representation.

?The county is now moving forward,? Casciano said. ?This is a major undertaking. We have 2,600 board workers to train, and need the public to understand how these new machines work.?