Letter to the Editor of the Intelligencer

 

April 3, 2008

Voting process needs accuracy

To the Editor:

On April 22, every voter needs to know that the election process is secure. If voters' intent is not carried out, democracy can't happen.

The League of Women Voters of Bucks County joins the national and state Leagues in urging support and passage of the Election Assistance for Secure Elections Act, HR 5036, introduced by Rep. Rush Holt of New Jersey. Citizens are urged to let their representatives know they want this legislation.

The “opt-in,” voluntary bill will provide federal money for states and counties to protect the integrity of their 2008 election in the way they deem best for their own citizens, be it purchase of a voter-verified paper-ballot voting system, auditing or hand counting the election results, or providing the added protection of emergency paper ballots to be used in the event of a failure of Direct Record Electronic voting machines.

Since the machines that are used in Bucks County now, the Danaher 1242, were purchased, more research has been conducted around the country regarding the security of electronic voting systems and reliable audit systems. The two major problems of DREs like the Danaher are that there is no verification for the voter that the machine recorded the voter's intent accurately, and there is no software-independent, voter-verified record of the votes that can be used as a check on the machine's accuracy or for a recount. To ask Bucks County's voters to believe that somehow our Danaher machines have risk-free accuracy is asking for trust without proof.

And if the Danaher 1242 were so superior to other DREs as to merit our confidence, the teams of researchers and perhaps even Holt would have singled it out for recommendation. That is not the case. HR 5036 would help Bucks County to correct both problems by providing funding for a voter-verified paper-ballot system. If ultimately no federal funding becomes available to aid Bucks County in assuring future accuracy of our voting system, we are still faced with the fact that the very nature of a democratic system of government requires accuracy.

Sue Houston
League of Women Voters of Bucks County

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