Electronic Voting Hearings Set to Start

Wed May 5, 1:08 PM ET
By HOPE YEN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Concerned about the reliability of electronic voting, a federal panel is examining ways to safeguard polling from hackers and bad software to avoid another disputed presidential election this November.

The first public hearing Wednesday by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission comes as many states consider legislation to require a paper record of every vote cast as a backup to technology they consider potentially faulty or vulnerable to malicious attack.

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Merits of E-Voting, Paper Backups Debated

By HOPE YEN, Associated Press Writer
May 5, 2004

WASHINGTON - Scientists told a federal panel Wednesday that electronic voting isn't completely reliable and suggested a backup paper system might be the only way to avoid another disputed presidential election in November.

But the commission's chairman said he didn't expect the bipartisan panel would issue national standards requiring paper receipts when it makes preliminary recommendations next week, followed by more detailed guidelines next month.

"We will not decide on what machines people will buy," said Republican DeForest B. Soaries Jr., chairman of the newly created U.S. Election Assistance Commission, saying it wasn't the panel's role to tell states what to do. "We will say, if California wants to have a backup paper system, what national standards it should follow."

At least 20 states are considering legislation to require a paper record of every vote cast after rushing to get ATM-like voting machines to replace paper ballots after Florida's fiasco with hanging chads in the 2000 presidential election. About 50 million people, or 29 percent of voters, are expected to vote electronically.

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E-Vote Controversy Comes to Commission

Wed May 5, 6:55 PM ET

By Andy Sullivan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A new U.S. election commission said on Wednesday it could not require districts using electronic voting machines to install printers or other secure backup systems to ensure that votes are counted properly.

Amid a heated debate over the merits of new touch-screen systems, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission said it hoped to develop voluntary guidelines for the electronic systems that will be used by one in three voters in November.

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Also speaking at the hearing, Johns Hopkins University computer-science professor Avi Rubin and Kevin Chung, chief executive of manufacturer Avante International Technology Inc., said external printers should be required.

Other experts cautioned that printers could simply cause more problems. Installing printers on all voting machines would take at least a year, said William Welsh, a board member of Elections Systems & Software, another manufacturer.

A better bet would be to set up a library of approved software so officials can ensure they are not running a hacked system, said Kennesaw State University computer-science professor Brit Williams.

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E-Voting: 1 County Sues State

Five others may follow Riverside in fighting the decertification of digital vote machines.

By Seema Mehta and Stuart Pfeifer, Times Staff Writers
May 5, 2004

Riverside County's Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to sue the state's top election official to regain the right to use electronic voting machines in November.

Officials in five other counties said they also might seek court approval to use their touch-screen voting machines on election day, which would overturn the temporary ban on their use and keep California on an aggressive path from paper to electronic balloting.

Secretary of State Kevin Shelley, noting security and technological concerns about the machines, banned electronic voting in four counties whose machines used unapproved software. He also decertified and set strict conditions for recertifying 10 other counties, including Riverside, that intended to use the machines in November.

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