State officials oppose electronic voting bill

AUGUSTA – A bill designed to pre-empt inaccuracies associated with the emergence of high-tech voting machines in many states was dismissed Tuesday as “premature” by state election officials.

Sponsored by Rep. Hannah Pingree, D-North Haven, LD 1759 would require a paper backup ballot to be generated each time a vote is cast on computerized “touch screen” machines similar to those featured on automatic teller machines at most banks and retail centers.

Although none of the “touch screen” machines are in use in Maine yet, Pingree emphasized that the devices went on line for the first time in November 2003 to comply with the Help America Vote Act which has earmarked $3.9 billion to help states acquire the new voting technology.

During a public hearing on the bill Tuesday afternoon before the Legislature’s Legal and Veterans Affairs Committee, Pingree cited problems with the touch screen machines in Indiana, Virginia, Mississippi, California and Louisiana. Some of the inaccuracies included:

. Initial election results in Indiana that indicated more than 144,000 ballots had been cast in a county with fewer than 19,000 registered voters.

. Numerous machine malfunctions and breakdowns in Virginia and Mississippi.

. Faulty results because of improperly trained election workers in California and Louisiana.

In all cases, Pingree said, the new direct recording electronic machines failed to produce a paper copy of the voter’s choices, which could be done easily by buying additional equipment.

“Paper backups could have been used to verify the accuracy of computerized counts in all of these elections,” Pingree said. “When there are problems, paper backups allow election officials a way to recover the results. This bill does just that.”

Julie Flynn, deputy secretary of state at the Bureau of Corporations, Elections and Commissions, said the primary reason her office was opposed to LD 1759 was language in the bill that prohibited the use of any voting machine in Maine that “does not produce a physical ballot, equivalent or superior to that of a hand-cast ballot that unambiguously reflects the intent of the voter.” Flynn said the bill’s language was unclear on the topic of optical scanning ballot tabulation devices, which do not produce a paper ballot.

Optical scanners are used in 109 cities and towns or about 22 percent of all municipalities in Maine. Although 78 percent of the state’s municipalities still hand-count their ballots, the 22 percent with optical scanners are used by about 65 percent of all Maine voters. Flynn said the Help America Vote Act will provide Maine with about $20 million to place one direct-recording electronic voting machine in each municipality by 2006. She added there were other types of direct-recording electronic devices available besides the touch screen model. Flynn said Maine needs to study the issue carefully to determine the most appropriate option to comply with HAVA and not create unintentional problems where none now exists.

“It’s premature to draft a whole body of law to fit a solution that may not be used in Maine,” she said.

Flynn was the only opponent to the bill, which has received bipartisan support in the Legislature along with endorsements by several Maine residents attending the hearing. Committee clerks said a work session on the bill would be announced at a later time.