Voting System

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.

As the FBI continued its review of the possible theft of the computer code used in Maryland's voting machines two years ago, Diebold and elections officials assured voters that the electronic voting system set to be used in next month's election is safe and tamperproof. But critics of the state elections board and its touch-screen machines said the anonymous package left at a former legislator's office this week was another disturbing sign that Maryland's voting system could face a security threat.

Adding to the chorus of discontent with Maryland's voting system, Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan said yesterday that he will bypass his polling place to vote by absentee ballot - and he suggested that his constituents do the same. Duncan, a Democrat and former candidate for governor whose county experienced severe voting problems during the September primary, said he has no confidence in the leadership of the State Board of Elections to handle the November general election.

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.

This Tuesday, for the first time, every voter in Maryland will cast a ballot on a voting system that is entirely electronic. Apart from the important public offices being filled, the stakes are substantial. Since the controversial outcome of the 2000 presidential election, when the state of Florida laid bare the need to discard outdated voting systems - especially punch-card ballots - more and more states have turned to computers with mixed results. Voters love their ATM-like ease, but every now and then, they're reminded that the voting machines are just as susceptible to unintended corruption as their home computers.

Maryland is among 17 states nationwide whose voting system is at "high risk" for compromised elections, according to a new study from political watchdog group Common Cause. The study says the electronic voting machines used in Maryland are prone to errors and susceptible to hacking because they lack paper receipts and use malfunctioning software. It cites a widely publicized 2003 study by Johns Hopkins University computer scientist Avi Rubin as part of its evidence. "In these states, votes will simply be lost if machines malfunction or votes are compromised due to programming errors or malicious code," the report states.

Opponents of allowing selected polling stations to open five days before Election Day reached a milestone in their drive to overturn the measure yesterday, while Democrats intensified their rhetoric in support of the plan. The State Board of Elections confirmed yesterday that Marylanders for Fair Elections, a volunteer group backed by Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s re-election campaign, collected more than the 17,062 valid signatures necessary to meet a first deadline in a petition drive against early-voting procedures adopted by the General Assembly.

The Maryland General Assembly appears close to abandoning a proposal for paper ballots this fall, opting instead to retain the state's electronic voting machines. For months, a bipartisan group of politicians and advocates has clamored for a voting system that provides paper audits. Without them, they assert, it would be impossible to detect whether the state's Diebold Elections System software had been hacked or had produced inaccurate results. The measure seemed on a fast track to approval after the House of Delegates unanimously voted last month to switch to an optical scan system, and the governor included money in his budget to pay for it. But the Senate is on a different course, and it appears unlikely the voting issue will be resolved by the time lawmakers adjourn on Monday.

Voting-by-mail plan meets criticism A new plan for Maryland voters to cast ballots by mail this fall received a cool reception from advocates who have been pushing for the state to ditch its current electronic voting machines. With the proposed system, modeled after Oregon's, paper ballots would be mailed to voters who would fill them out and send them in. The system is identical to absentee voting in Maryland, where paper ballots are mailed and tabulated through optical-scan machines.

Three months ago, a Finnish computer expert successfully hacked into an optical scan voting machine in Florida. Now, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and members of the House of Delegates seem to believe this same technology is a far better choice for the coming election than the state's touch-screen voting system. Why? That's a good question. Because while there are legitimate security challenges posed by touch-screen machines, including the absence of a so-called paper trail, these shortcomings pale compared with the problems spawned by this 11th-hour push to replace them with optical scan machines.