Mississippi is about to begin the process of upgrading the voting equipment in its 82 counties to conform to new standards under the Help America Vote Act (HAVA).
Touch-screen computer (direct recording electronic or DRE) voting machines have some advantages, including easier access by the disabled. However, there are problems with the current generation of these machines.
Computer security specialists at Johns Hopkins found one of the more widely-used touch-screen machines to be “far below even the most minimal security standards.”
Voters could vote more than once, and more sophisticated hackers could alter vote totals during the election.
Despite similar concerns expressed by computer scientists at Stanford, the machines were deployed in 37 states. Not surprisingly, election officials and observers have reported numerous problems with these and other poorly designed machines.
As a result of voting machine-related problems in Ohio, that state in January 2005 decided to use precinct-scanned optical ballots.
Not only do many computer voting machines fail rigorous security checks, but also they do not allow the voter to verify the vote cast. Without this voter-verifiable paper receipt, a computer voting machine is a “black box” with no way to verify its accuracy.
Mississippi must exercise caution in its purchase. The state should undertake a thorough evaluation and must require voter-verifiable paper trails. If a suitably designed touchscreen voting machine becomes financially impractical, the state should rely on tried-and-true precinct-scanned optical ballots.
This system is highly reliable, prevents over-votes and allows second-chance voting, as required under HAVA. Several counties already use this system, so HAVA funds could be concentrated where they are most needed.
Finally, the state’s HAVA-compliance plan states that a paper receipt will be required “for any court-ordered election recount.” A much more important reason is to audit performance of the voting machines.
Without mandatory, random audits of 1 to 2 percent of machines, the public can never know whether computer voting machines are accurately recording their votes. Without a meaningful paper trail, no such audits can be done.
John M. Wages Jr. is the election commissioner for 3rd district of Lee County.