Today in the Senate

Feinstein to Lead E-Voting Scrutiny;
Measures Sought To Avoid Disputes

November 26, 2006

This month's election fueled growing anxiety about new electronic voting systems around the country, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California plans to take a hard look at e-voting and a host of other election issues and rules. With about a third of the nation using new voting systems for the first time, fears of a massive breakdown Nov. 7 were not realized. But serious problems did emerge, and many analysts warn that a replay of the 2000 election debacle in Florida could occur unless security is improved and all voters have a chance to verify how their votes were cast. With the new Democratic majority in the Senate, Feinstein in January will take over the little-known Rules and Administration Committee, which oversees ethics rules in the Senate and how federal elections are run. She plans wide-ranging hearings on election reform next year, said media aide Howard Gantman. Even before the election, Feinstein was planning legislation to require a paper trail verified by voters for all electronic systems in the nation. A similar bill in the House has the support of 216 members, two short of a majority. California and 26 other states now have a voter-verified paper trail. A network of computer scientists and voting advocates have pushed for better security and transparency since Congress passed the Help America Vote Act in 2002 in response to the 2000 crisis. That legislation provided federal money to upgrade systems, but did not require a paper trail. Many of those critics say new touch-screen systems are not dependable, and are focusing on what may be the most serious controversy of the election, a possible software failure in a congressional race in Florida. In that election, almost 18,000 people in Sarasota County who voted in various races did not vote in the hotly contested congressional contest between Republican Vern Buchanan and Democrat Christine Jennings. That rate of 15 percent "no votes'' was four to five times higher than the rate in surrounding counties. Dozens of Sarasota voters reported problems with the touch-screen machines. Some said they voted for a congressional candidate, though the summary page at the end of the process informed them they had not voted. Florida does not require a paper trail that voters can check. State officials certified that Buchanan won by 369 votes out of 238,000 cast. But the state agreed to conduct an audit next week of the county's touch-screen machines, with outside experts present, to look for problems. Jennings is suing, seeking a new election. David Dill, a computer-science professor at Stanford University who founded Verified Voting, an election watchdog project, said many complaints of lost votes on electronic systems were made in the 2004 election, but little was done. "The complaints need to be investigated urgently, or machine problems will lead to more disputed elections in the future,'' said Dill in an article on his Web site titled, "Is Florida Ready for Democracy?'' Doug Chapin, who monitors election reform for Electionline.org, a non-partisan clearinghouse in Washington, said so many new systems were in use Nov. 7 that candidates and officials were relieved there were no major breakdowns. Now he's not so sure. Chapin, a former counsel to the Senate Rules Committee, said two weeks after the election: "At first I thought there were lots of fender-benders on Election Day but no major pile-ups. But Sarasota is a pile-up.'' There were other serious problems. Denver voters waited in line three hours or more -- with some leaving in disgust -- because a digital voter-verification system kept crashing. The mayor called the lack or preparation for a new system "outrageous,'' and the Denver County clerk resigned. Pamela Scott, Verified Voting's national coordinator, said states and counties have to make it easier for voters to see the results of their vote. And she said election officials have to do a better job testing and retesting their equipment before Election Day, and auditing it afterward. California's incoming secretary of state, Debra Bowen, said the state must do more to make sure manufacturers fix security problems, and she wants to see more audits and tests of new equipment. The makers of the touch-screen system used in Sarasota, Electronic Systems & Services, defended the reliability of the equipment, and many counties and cities reported few glitches. But Feinstein worries that voters may be losing confidence that their vote will be accurately tallied. "It's imperative that Congress does everything it can to help ensure that votes cast are recorded accurately,'' she said recently. "Serious questions have arisen about the accuracy and reliability of new electronic voting machines.'' This time, the disputed Florida election did not determine a national outcome, such as who controls the House, where the Democrats will have about 28 more seats than the Republicans. But that may not always be the case. If 18,000 disputed ballots had been cast in Virginia or Montana -- where Senate races were determined by about half that number of votes -- control of the Senate would have been at stake. "Elections are so close these days, we could see a disputed situation help determine who controls Congress or the presidency,'' said Gantman, Feinstein's new staff director on the Rules Committee. The committee may also look at other issues. Republicans want measures to ensure voter ID and prevent fraud, and Feinstein would like to bar a state's top election official from participating in a campaign committee for a federal candidate. Secretaries of state in Florida in 2000 (Katherine Harris) and in Ohio in 2004 (Ken Blackwell) headed Bush-Cheney committees while making decisions on a wide range of election procedures.