Touch-and-Go Elections

Editorial - washingtonpost.com
November 9, 2003

ARE TOUCH-SCREEN voting machines fast and flawless, or glitch-prone and vulnerable to tampering? No one can say for sure, which is reason enough for Maryland and Virginia localities to conduct more extensive testing before totally embracing the new systems they have inaugurated with mixed results. On Tuesday it took Fairfax County more than 21 hours to get final election results from its new computerized machines; when all was cast and done, enough doubts existed to prompt legal action by some Republicans who lost.

Any possible malfunctions seem unlikely to call results into doubt. But questions about reliability remain, and the absence of a paper trail makes checking difficult. Attorneys for the GOP went before a Circuit Court judge Wednesday, asking him to keep 10 voting machines under lock and key. The machines, from nine precincts across the county, broke down about midday and were brought to the county government center for repairs and then returned to the polls. The judge said the activity logs of these machines will be inspected, with members of both parties on hand. The challengers noted that whether a contest is affected or not shouldn't be the chief question; ballot integrity is at issue. A number of Fairfax voters complained that it took them several tries to register their votes. A few precincts were forced to return to paper ballots.

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