Voting Equipment and Procedures on Trial

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Voting Equipment and Procedures on Trial From quill to touch screen: A US history of ballot-casting 1770s Balloting replaces a show of Voting hands or voice votes. Voters write out names of their candidates in longhand, and give their ballots to an election judge. 1850s Political parties disperse Equipment preprinted lists of candidates, enabling the illiterate to vote. The ballot becomes a long strip of paper, like a railroad ticket. 1869 Thomas Edison receives a patent for his invention of the and voting machine, intended for counting congressional votes. 1888 Massachusetts prints a ballot, at public expense, listing names of all candidates nominated Procedures and their party affiliation. Most states adopt this landmark improvement within eight years. 1892 A lever-operated voting machine is first used at a Lockport, N.Y., town meeting. on Trial Similar machines are still in use today. 1964 A punch-card ballot is introduced in two counties in Georgia. Almost 4 in 10 voters used punch cards in the 1996 presidential election. 1990s Michigan is the first to switch to' optical scanning, used for decades in standardized testing. One-quarter of voters used the technology in the 1996 election. 2000 A storm erupts over Florida's punch-card ballots and Palm Beach County's "butterfly ballot" in the presidential election. 2002 New federal law authorizes $3.9 billion over three years to help states upgrade voting technologies and phase out punch cards and lever machines. Georgia is the first state to use DRE touch-screen technology exclusively. Sources: Federal Elections Commission; "Elections A to Z," CQ, 2003; International Encyclopedia of Elections, CQ Press, 2000; League of Women Voters. Reproduced with permission. Copyright © Published by 2003 The Christian Science Monitor League of Women Voters of Washington Education Fund (www.csmonitor.com). All rights reserved Winter 2003 TABLE OF CONTENTS Help America Vote Act Current Voting Equipment in Washington Voting Equipment in Various Stages of Development Security Issues Arguments Pro and Con HAVA Timing and Funding Present Voting Procedures Registration Voting Without Going to the Polls Ballot Counting Conclusion Appendices VOTING EQUIPMENT AND PROCEDURES ON TRIAL Hanging chads! Lost registrations! Double voting! Florida! The impetus for election reform all across America stems from the chaos that occurred in Florida during the 2000 presidential election. In October 2002, the Congress of the United States responded by passing the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). In 2003, the League of Women Voters of Washington responded by adopting a study to examine how elections are conducted in this state and changes being considered. The first year of the two-year study looks at voting with absentee/vote-by-mail ballots, reviews the security checks in the ballot counting process, evaluates the role voting equipment plays in voting and tallying, and includes a definition of terms. New developments are occurring every day, and the committee has made a sincere effort to make this study as current as possible. In the second year, the League will examine timelines for elections in Washington, consider how this state is implementing HAVA requirements, and update developments since this was written. HELP AMERICA VOTE ACT (HAVA) election management systems compatible with the new state system. The Help America Vote Act (HAVA) directs • $14 million for voter education, training states to improve their voting administration, record and a new complaint procedure. keeping systems and voting equipment. The Act requires that this be done through the use of While HAVA funds may be used for a wide provisional ballots, statewide computerized voter variety of voting related purposes, the requirement lists, and private access for the disabled, the that has drawn the most public discussion and visually impaired and for language minorities. debate is the one requiring each polling place to have at least one computerized voting machine One of the challenges faced by HAVA is equipped for the visually handicapped, usually that election administration is primarily a state thought of as a DRE. With many election officers responsibility; consequently, it is difficult to planning to replace all their current voting generalize about problems at the federal level and equipment with DREs, some people are concerned appropriate solutions at the state level. Because about the security of these machines, particularly election laws vary from state to state, each state is those that do not have a voter verifiable paper trail. required to draw up its own plan for HAVA The potential impact of this HAVA requirement is implementation. The federal government budgeted magnified by a combination of events: pressure to $3.9 billion to assist states in meeting HAVA eliminate punch card machines, demands for requirements. A member of the LWV of ballots in an increasing number of languages, and Washington served on the Help America Vote Act availability of federal money to buy new equipment. steering committee appointed to help devise the As a result, election administrators throughout the plan for Washington State. country have been preparing their spending plans and planning their equipment orders. Washington’s plan was completed in August 2003. It allocates approximately: CURRENT VOTING EQUIPMENT • $14.5 million to replace voting IN WASHINGTON equipment in the 16 counties that still use punch cards, and to place at each Washington voters currently vote using polling place at least one voting punch cards, optical scan ballots, or DREs. machine capable of enabling sight impaired voters to cast ballots without • Punch Cards: The voter perforates the help from another person. The only card to remove the chad in the location equipment currently certified to corresponding to each of the intended votes accomplish this task is called a Direct for candidates or ballot issues. The card is Recording Electronic machine (DRE). then placed in a sealed ballot box. The box • $11 million to create a statewide voter is taken from the polling place to the registration database and county elections office at the close of voting, where the cards are inspected for damage and basis. These machines are currently being stacked for insertion into the card reader for used in Snohomish County. counting. • Optical Scan: The voter marks the ballot with a pen or pencil, indicating candidate or VOTING EQUIPMENT IN VARIOUS STAGES ballot issue preferences. The ballot is OF DEVELOPMENT placed in the ballot box where it is “read” by the optical scan. If more than one The HAVA requires accommodation for candidate receives a vote for the same those voters who are not proficient in English. office (over vote), the machine will reject the Using software to generate instruction and ballots ballot so that the voter can make a on screen in other languages is more flexible and correction. As the machine accepts the economic than printing multiple versions in large ballot, the scanned votes are recorded on a quantities. All variants discussed below that have memory card that can be accessed only an on screen or audio ballot presentation can after the polls close. Depending on election incorporate other languages. Washington state law department policy, the vote totals for that requires that the Secretary of State certify any new polling place can be printed from the voting equipment, and that it has been used in at memory cards, the memory card contents least one other state prior to certification here. may be sent to election headquarters by telephone modem, or the memory cards • DRE with voter verified paper trail: may be physically transported to election Operates the same as the no paper DRE, headquarters along with all the ballots, except for the addition of one more where the final consolidation of votes takes verification step. Upon completion of place. selection of all desired choices, when the voter touches a “finished” spot, the • Direct Recording Electronic (DRE with confirmation steps include a printout of the touch screen only) machines: The voter ballot choices on an attached printer to signs in at the polling place and receives a permit the voter to review and approve the magnetic smart card activated by the poll choices displayed in both places, the screen worker, which is taken to the voting booth and the paper. If they are the voter’s and inserted into the smart card reader to choices, and both match, then touching a begin the voting process. Data on the card spot that accepts the final “finished” order directs the software to bring up the proper registers the vote both internally in the ballot style for that voter. The voter is memory of the machine and on the voter presented with on-screen instructions and inspected paper. The paper representation ballot choices for candidates and issues. of the ballot is then handled in much the Voting is done by touching a designated same way as optical scan ballots. spot on the screen with a finger, a pointer Completed and read sheets are collected in instrument or a dial for each individual race a ballot box and transported for storage to or issue. Upon completion of selection of the elections office. The computer tally is the voter’s choices, he/she selects a usually considered official. However, if an “Finished” option. One or more confirmation audit is required, the paper record is steps follow to permit the voter to review available as a check on the electronic and approve the choices displayed, or to record. Some find it helpful to think of this spoil the ballot and start over, eventually system as a kind of double-entry touching a spot that casts and finally bookkeeping. records the voter’s choices within the data archive of the equipment. The smart card is • DRE with controls for the sight-impaired: ejected if it remained in the reader, and the A standard DRE with the addition of tactile machine is locked.
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