PRESS: State no closer to election safeguards

http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36%7E29805%7E2129946,00.html

Article Published: Thursday, May 06, 2004

State no closer to election safeguards

By Susan Greene
Denver Post Staff Writer

As elections draw near and a new federal commission this week starts considering security standards for electronic voting, Colorado is no closer to safeguards that activists have demanded since the Florida recount fiasco.

Critics question whether tallies of votes recorded electronically can be trusted. Some want to return to paper ballots, and others want paper receipts that would allow voters to verify that the vote recorded reflects the vote cast.

"When this election is over, we're not going to be able to verify, and we're not going to be able to trust the results," said Al Kolwicz, a Boulder election watchdog who serves as executive director of Citizens for Accurate Mail Ballot Election Results.

Colorado officials urge voters to trust the reliability of thousands of computerized election machines statewide.

"We have no reason to doubt the security of the electronic equipment that's out there at this time," said Secretary of State Donetta Davidson, whose office tests voting equipment.

Voter confidence in electronic voting has been called into question after glitches reported since 2000 in Florida, Virginia and California. Problems include machines that are slow to start up, others displaying incorrect ballots and others with buttons registering votes for the wrong candidate.

Closer to home, Boulder County had to recount tallies from its November 2003 election when officials there used noncertified software on electronic voting equipment. Also last year, machines using older technology incorrectly tallied vote counts in Garfield County because of human error.

Last week, California's secretary of state decertified 14,000 Diebold touch- screen terminals plus 28,000 additional Diebold touch-screens in four counties after glitches in that state's March primary election. As of last summer, there were about 120 of the same model Diebold voting machines in El Paso County, Weld County and Broomfield.

In March, Davidson ordered county clerks not to buy or lease new electronic voting machines from any manufacturer until the newly formed U.S. Election Assistance Commission - created by Congress after election snafus in Florida in 2000 and 2002 - sets rules by which to certify them.

Still, Davidson said she will allow the machines already purchased by Colorado counties to be used this year - even before new rules are in place.

"Right now there's no standards, therefore no machinery that's certified. We're all on hold," said Davidson's spokeswoman, Lisa Doran.

"Colorado is very much in step with other states around the country in taking a wait-and-see attitude because of all those issues that have been raised this year," added Doug Chapin, director of Electionline.org, a nonpartisan group monitoring election reform.