Voting System

Baltimore's legislators will introduce a bill next month that would permit the city to keep its current voting system rather than conform to the statewide standard in 2006 as required by law. Sen. Nathaniel J. McFadden, chairman of the city's Senate delegation, said yesterday that the city has a system that works and that it can't afford the expense of leasing the Diebold system that other Maryland jurisdictions will bring on line next year. McFadden said the Sequoia touch-screen voting system the city adopted five years ago is still "state of the art" and offers advantages over the Diebold product.

Two weeks ago, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. said he no longer had faith in Maryland's ability to conduct a fair and tamper-free election, and asked the State Board of Elections for a written response to his concerns about electronic voting machines. Yesterday, a spokesman for Ehrlich called the Board of Elections' reply - received this week - "completely unsatisfactory and evasive." "After reading this letter, we have even less confidence in the board's ability to conduct a fair election than we did two weeks ago," said Henry Fawell, an Ehrlich spokesman.

A federal judge sided yesterday with state elections officials in the most recent dispute involving Maryland's new electronic voting machines, saying challengers to the new system could not approach voters or hand out literature within 100 feet of polling precincts - an area off-limits to campaigners and advocacy groups. "For those of us who are voters, I don't think it's too much to ask for 100 feet of peace," said U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz during a hearing in which he declined to step into a dispute between elections officials and TrueVoteMD, a group critical of the state's touch-screen voting plans.

Maryland took the first step yesterday toward a uniform voting system when the State Elections Board endorsed a $13 million contract to buy electronic touch-screen machines that would eliminate overvotes. If the contract is approved by the state Board of Public Works, the units would replace equipment - in time for next year's gubernatorial election - in the four counties with the most outmoded voting machines. The counties are Montgomery, the only one still using a "punch hole" system, and Prince George's, Allegany and Dorchester, which use manual lever systems.

A vote to transcend politics of prejudice On Tuesday, I voted, with my daughter by my side, and I experienced something unexpected: My eyes welled up, and a tear dropped. I suppose I was simply overwhelmed by the fact that I was actually voting for an African-American candidate for president ("Making history," Nov. 5). I am too young to remember the civil rights struggle. But I am a student of history, and I live in this world where prejudice and ignorance still reign. And frankly, I never expected that this day would come.

A group that has protested the state's use of electronic voting machines is advocating the use of paper ballots in the November presidential election in case of long lines at state polls. SAVE Our Votes released a report yesterday predicting that some voters could wait hours to cast ballots in the Nov. 4 election. The study, by physicist William Edelstein, found that voters at most polling places could experience waits of more than two hours. Edelstein, a member of SAVE Our Votes, a nonprofit group that advocates for secure, accessible and verifiable elections in the state, said that even if the state brings in additional voting machines, the flood of voters could be overwhelming.

MARYLAND ISN'T Florida. No hanging chads, no screw-ups in counting presidential votes. But there's considerable confusion in this state over the best way for citizens to cast ballots. Nineteen counties use optical-scan paper ballots; three use mechanical-lever machines; one uses an updated scanning system; and Baltimore City uses a touch-screen electronic voting device. What's needed is a uniform voting system throughout the state. That's precisely what a special state commission is recommending.

The case of the Rockville absentee voters who weren't is a reminder that human error, not technology, is usually the biggest obstacle to those who run elections. The incident was unfortunate - roughly 10 percent of the city's electorate was accidentally classified as absentee for the Nov. 6 municipal election - but the consequences could have been far worse. As it was, about 10 people were directed to go to Rockville City Hall to straighten out their situation. It's likely some didn't bother and therefore didn't vote.

The day before the Harford County primary, one polling place had no electricity, the standby pool of election judges had dwindled from 50 to three, and officials were about to implement a new voting system. By 7 a.m. Tuesday, power was restored at Abingdon Elementary School and the nearly 700 judges had reported to the precincts. About 32 percent of Harford's nearly 117,000 registered voters cast ballots. A few of those 37,974 people encountered difficulties with the electronic polling books.

A day after Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. chastised the State Board of Elections, saying that he has no confidence in Maryland's voting system, the state's chief elections administrator told a Senate committee that changing Maryland's voting equipment would be "catastrophic." In a scathing letter to State Board of Elections Chairman Gilles Burger, Ehrlich said he is concerned about security and accuracy risks in the state's electronic voting system. He called on the agency to adopt a voter-verification system, such as a paper receipt, for its touch-screen voting machines.