Camera 12/4: Group fights new voting system

[Doug Grinbergs <saule@xxxxxxxxx>]

<http://www.dailycamera.com/bdc/city_news/article/0,1713,BDC_2422_2476921,00.html>
Group fights new voting system 
County says machines must be replaced 
By Ryan Morgan, Camera Staff Writer
Daily Camera
December 4, 2003 


Members from the self-proclaimed Citizens for Verifiable Voting will ask the Board of Boulder County Commissioners today to wait before buying new voting machines.

The group will also ask commissioners not to buy electronic voting machines, which they say are vulnerable to tampering and don't provide the kind of openness and security voters should expect when they cast their ballots, spokesman Joe Pezzillo said.

"We do think there might be advantages to computers, but not yet," he said. "We can save a lot of money and figure out the most prudent course of action if we wait."

But officials from the county's Clerk and Recorder's office say they have to act now in order to comply with the Help America Vote Act - a 2002 federal law that requires counties to get rid of antiquated punch-card systems.

The law requires counties to put new systems in place by the November 2004 elections.

Boulder County's current system would need replacing even without the federal law, because many of the machines are breaking down and won't be able to withstand another election, said Tom Halicki, Boulder County's election manager. "We've got to get a system. We have to get it built and delivered here," Halicki said. "We really need to start doing something soon."

The biggest bone of contention between Pezzillo's group and the county lies in the use of Direct Record Electronic machines, in which a voter completes a ballot on a computer touch-screen. The computer then tallies that vote automatically.

But Pezzillo calls that a critical flaw: The voter has no idea whether the choices she makes are the ones the computer is actually counting.

Voting-machine software is proprietary and not open to public inspection, he said, and it could be vulnerable to malicious tampering.

"It's not possible for the average person to be confident that the software is interpreting their vote accurately," he said.

His group prefers a system that lets voters use touchscreens to make their selections - and prints those selections on a paper ballot that is then run through conventional vote-counting machines. The fact that some of the Direct Record Election machines being considered by the county issue a receipt isn't enough, he said.

"Instead of being a vote-recording device, we're asking that the device be a vote-marking device, so the vote is a piece of paper that the voter can read," he said.

But election manager Halicki said the county doesn't have much of a choice. Federal law requires counties to install touch-screen machines to accommodate people with disabilities.

And all of those machines automatically tally votes, he said.

Pezzillo has found one "vote-marking" machine that meets those requirements - but it hasn't yet been approved for use, Halicki said.

"I didn't see any certification for that company nationally," he said. "Theoretically, yes, that kind of machine is out there, but we're dealing with having to make a decision soon."

And that's the other major issue over which Halicki and Pezzillo disagree. Pezzillo said the federal government could give counties time to install the new technology. Because many counties won't make the 2004 deadline, Colorado has requested an extension.

Halicki said that's true, but he has no idea how long Boulder County would have to wait for a response and what the county would do if it was rejected.

"Right now, we don't know what we're dealing with," he said.