Mainers remain confident with paper ballots

AUGUSTA – Computerized voting machines may be making inroads nationwide, but paper ballots rule the roost in Maine.

Most of those ballots – about 65 percent – are read by optical scanning machines used in the more populous cities and towns. The remaining 35 percent, which account for about 80 percent of the state’s communities, are counted by hand.

“It’s neighbors conducting the election of their neighbors,” said Secretary of State Dan Gwadosky. “It really has served us well.”

The state plans to introduce at least one computerized voting machine into each Maine polling place by 2006 to comply with a federal requirement to help disabled people vote on their own.

Those machines have an audio component to help the visually impaired or others vote without help from anyone else, he said.

Beyond that, there seems to be no big push for a switch to a voting system that uses touch-screen computers.

For one thing, cash-strapped communities say there’s little money to pay for new voting machines. And some people are skeptical about whether computerized systems are as trustworthy as old-style ballots that provide a paper trail in the event of a recount.

No matter how it’s done, there’s a certain error rate in virtually all methods of voting, said Marvin Druker, a professor of public affairs at Lewiston-Auburn College of the University of Southern Maine. Many of the errors are made honestly: People aren’t trying to rig elections, he said.

One of the best ways to prevent errors or correct them if they happen is by using paper ballots, Druker said.

“Generally, Maine has a high voter turnout as well. And given that, some municipalities are so small they can get through quickly even with a large turnout,” he said.

While Maine hasn’t been plagued with widespread voting problems, others think it’s time for smaller towns to consider moving to the optical scanners to tabulate votes.

“As you approach midnight, it’s very easy to make a mistake,” said Sen. Art Mayo, R-Bath, who has been involved with two recounts in the last four years. “That isn’t a criticism, it’s a fact.”

Mayo noted that many poll workers are on duty from early in the morning until late at night, and hand counting keeps them working far too long.