WASHINGTON - When the nation turns out to cast
ballots in this fall's elections, the voting system will
be in no better shape than it was in 2000, a panel of
voting experts said Friday.
Problems with electronic voting machines in this
year's primaries illustrated that changes have been
slow, despite the implementation of new standards meant
to improve the system, panelists told the U.S.
Commission on Civil Rights.
The commission, an independent bipartisan agency, has
been examining the voting system since the 2000
presidential election, when the Supreme Court decided
the outcome after voting problems in Florida and other
states.
"Most states really won't be ready. We're ending
up in '04 with the very same problems and issues that
were there before," said Mary Frances Berry,
committee chairperson. The group plans to study the
issue of election reform in the fall, shortly before the
November elections.
Congress passed the federal Help America Vote Act in
2002 and set new standards ��� such as requiring ID for
first-time voters. The law forced states to look at
using electronic voting machines instead of punch cards
to avoid the problems with ballots that Florida
encountered in 2000. But money to make the changes has
been slow in getting to states. Forty-one states have
received waivers giving them until 2006 to have
computerized voter registration lists.
Because states must replace punchcard and lever
machines, voting officials nationwide are buying
electronic machines ��� many of which use touch-screen
technology.
That alone doesn't solve the problem of inaccurate
votes, said Michael Shamos, a computer science professor
at Carnegie Mellon University. "They haven't rushed
to educate people on how to properly use the machines,
which is creating all kinds of problems," he said.
The use of computerized voting has prompted questions
about security, reliability and whether or not paper
trails should be used. More than a dozen states are
considering issuing paper receipts for voters to verify
before casting their ballots, but some voting experts
warn that there still could be problems, such as
discrepancies between those and the computerized
ballots.
All this talk about technology and whether votes will
even count could cause people to skip voting altogether,
said Wade Henderson, executive director of the
Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. If people don't
feel comfortable, they won't vote, he said.
But the possibility of widespread use of electronic
voting could encourage people who are less likely to
vote to cast a ballot, particularly minorities and the
disabled, said Jim Dickson, with the American
Association of People with Disabilities. Computerized
voting would allow people to vote in different languages
and make audio available so that illiterate and blind
people can vote on their own.
Dickson, himself blind, said he voted on a touch
screen without the help of another person for the first
time in this year's primaries. In the 36 years he's been
voting, Dickson said, he's had pollworkers who read
ballots to him comment on his voting choices and even
tell him that they weren't going to bother with reading
a referendum to him since no one votes on those anyway.
Electronic voting may not be perfect, but it offers
hope to people who otherwise might not be voting, he
said.
"Every system messes up. Touch screens mess up
the least," Dickson said.