Voting System

Taking up one of the most contentious election reform issues facing states around the country, a House of Delegates committee heard a bill yesterday that would force Maryland to upgrade its 16,000 new electronic voting machines to allow voters to verify that their ballots were cast accurately. Proponents say the legislation would ensure that the $55 million voting system can be trusted when it is rolled out in nearly every precinct in the state in the Democratic presidential primary in three weeks.

A federal online voting system for military personnel and other citizens overseas is so fraught with security risks that it should be shut down before it is implemented next month, according to four researchers asked to analyze it. Because the system relies on the Internet and personal computers, voter privacy could be jeopardized and votes could be altered by hackers or even terrorists - which could change the outcome of a close race, the report released...

KABUL, Afghanistan - With the first parliamentary election in 32 years set for Sunday, pro-democracy campaigners here have much to celebrate. About 12 million Afghans, the vast majority of the country's adults, are registered to vote. And those interviewed by journalists and election observers say they are eager to choose a legislature to replace civil war as the forum for political debate. The Bush administration, too, is lauding the election's virtual completion of a national government here that was designed under U.S. guidance to serve as a possible model for democracy in the Muslim world.

The Johns Hopkins University computer scientist who identified security lapses in the voting system Maryland is adopting took his warnings to Annapolis yesterday, telling legislators he has no confidence the flaws are being fixed. Dr. Aviel D. Rubin, technical director of Hopkins' Information Security Institute, criticized the Ehrlich administration's decision to withhold two-thirds of a consultant's report on problems with the Diebold voting system from public view. Rubin said that if the flaws have been fixed there's no justification for secrecy.

WASHINGTON -- Ambitious efforts to modernize the nation's patchwork voting system were finally supposed to pay big dividends in the 2006 congressional balloting, but instead Election Day could bring a new round of problems, confusion and partisan rancor. Unproven electronic voting machines, stricter voter identification requirements in many states, new databases and partisan disputes over registration campaigns are all contributing to the concern. So are the closely divided nature of the American electorate and the rising stakes in this year's voting as Democrats appear poised for major gains.

Howard County's 12-year- old voting system is "unstable" and could fail during the next election, a county election official told the County Council yesterday. But Maryland elections administrator Linda H. Lamone said that trying to buy a new system now might be ill-advised. While a gubernatorial committee and the General Assembly decide on a standardized statewide voting system and funding, Howard County might consider leasing new equipment for the 2002 elections, Lamone said. Robert G. Antonetti, Howard's elections administrator, said he is worried about the county's Op-Tech II paper ballot voting system, because parts for the electronic counting machines are not available and the county had to hire software technicians from Alabama for the presidential election.

The Maryland Board of Elections is pitting its electronic voting machines against hand-counted ballots in a contest designed to prove that the new system is every bit as accurate as the old. In an attempt to change the minds of voting machine critics, state officials will hold "parallel tests" starting today in six county elections offices. State officials, representatives of the League of Women Voters and members of the public will check randomly selected machines and compare their accuracy against paper ballots.

WASHINGTON - One year to the day after the Supreme Court resolved the disputed presidential election, the House overwhelmingly approved reforms yesterday that are intended to correct the flaws that prevented last year's vote from being settled at the polls. The bill, approved 362 to 63, sets minimum national voting standards and provides $2.6 billion to help states upgrade their voting systems. A key feature would send $400 million to the states to eliminate the punch-card ballots that were largely blamed for the difficulty in counting the pivotal presidential ballots in Florida.

The manufacturer of Baltimore's $6.5 million voting system took responsibility yesterday for the computer failures that delayed Tuesday election results and vowed to repay the city for overtime and related costs. Phil Foster, regional manager for Sequoia Pacific Voting Equipment Inc., of Jamestown, N.Y., said his company neglected to update software in a computer that reads the elections results. While it tested some programs, the company did not test that part of the system before the election.