A paper trail, both during an election and afterward, is essential
to ensure the integrity of electronic voting. A bill requiring the use
of paper ballots during a post-election recount is heading toward the
governor's desk. Despite the opposition of Secretary of State Bruce
McPherson, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger should sign it.
For four decades, state law has required that poll officials after
an election do a random manual recount of 1 percent of ballots cast, as
a check against election malfunction and fraud. SB 370, sponsored by
Sen. Debra Bowen, D-Redondo Beach, would require that the sample
recounts for electronic voting be done using the paper printouts that
voters now use to verify their ballots.
California is one of two dozen states that mandate a voter-verified
paper trail for touch-screen machines. A dozen of those now use the
paper printouts in a sample recount.
That should seem obvious, but not to most county registrars of
voters and McPherson. They want to take the easier and quicker route of
printing out electronic images of votes that the touch-screen software
can create internally but that voters don't see.
The difference may seem an arcane point, but it's fundamental. If
there is a glitch with the software, you won't know it by simply using
images that mask the problem. Only the paper copies that voters
verified when they voted can offer an accurate check.
The registrars protest that counting the paper slips would be
cumbersome and might interfere with the requirement to do a recount
within 28 days of an election -- a weak excuse. Some have continued to
insist that a paper trail is unnecessary. But there have been enough
breakdowns and bugs in touch-screen machines to warrant skepticism and
justify the extra check that SB 370 would provide.
McPherson has another objection: The voter-verified paper slips
don't conform in size, print clarity and paper weight to a legal
ballot. That is true but shouldn't preclude their use. Regulations
should be changed to incorporate the voter-verified receipts, and
voting machine companies should be encouraged to produce a paper trail
from larger, sturdier stock.
California took the lead in demanding accurate electronic voting. SB 370 is key to election accountability.
