Expert: Palm Beach's New Voting Machines Have Problems

[R. A. Hettinga]

http://info.mgnetwork.com/printthispage.cgi?url=http%3A//ap.tbo.com/ap/florida/MGAIFTWBQ3D.html&oaspagename=www.tbo.com/ap/story.htm&image=tbologo80x60.jpg


Jul 16, 2002
Expert: Palm Beach's New Voting Machines Have Problems
By Jill Barton
Associated Press Writer

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) - The voting machines that replaced butterfly
ballots and hanging chads are checked by an "Enron-style of auditing" and
don't provide voters any assurance that their votes are being cast, an
expert testified Tuesday.

Rebecca Mercuri, a computer science professor at Bryn Mawr College in
Pennsylvania, said questions remain about the $14 million machines Palm
Beach County purchased to improve its voting system because they are
designed to audit themselves.

"The problem with the self-auditing machines is if it's broken, how can it
tell you that it's broken?" Mercuri said.

Mercuri's testimony provided the latest criticism of a county still
embarrassed by the 2000 election debacle. She was called in a Tuesday
afternoon hearing to bolster a Boca Raton man's claims that he lost a City
Council election in March because the new machines malfunctioned.

Former Mayor Emil Danciu's suit seeks to have the results overturned and a
new election held.

The suit includes affidavits from eight voters who said they had trouble
casting ballots on the ATM-style machines and says voters should be given
paper receipts to confirm their vote was recorded.

It also seeks to allow an independent review of the voting machines and
related software and security features.

Supervisor of Elections Theresa LePore says such a review would void the
machines' warranty and that they've been reviewed twice by labs appointed
by the federal government and also by a state worker.

She says most of the information the plaintiffs are seeking is filed with
the state Division of Elections in Tallahassee and even if it were
available, she couldn't provide it because it includes trade secrets of
Sequoia Voting Systems Inc., which manufactures the machines.

"I'm not willing to let anyone take a machine and take it apart," LePore
said. "I don't think the taxpayers would appreciate them taking apart a
$3,500 machine and voiding the warranty."

LePore has said the only problems reported to her office following the
March election were screens temporarily freezing when voters chose between
English and Spanish, which did not prevent voting.

She said the machines further demonstrated that they work Saturday when the
county held a mock election in supermarkets and shopping malls allowing
voters to try out the machines.

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R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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