Secretary of State says safeguards for computer voting are strictest in nation

Greenwich Time - January 26, 2008

By Neil Vigdor
Staff Writer

January 26, 2008

Connecticut, which uses the same voting machines blamed for discrepancies in the New Hampshire presidential primaries, has a number of added safeguards to prevent similar problems on Super Tuesday, state election officials said.

"We have many checks in place to ensure the integrity and security of the election process," Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz said in an interview.

Bysiewicz said she had no reservations about using the fax-like machines known as the Accu-Vote system, which read blackened ovals on paper ballots that resemble standardized test answer sheets.

The new devices replaced mechanical lever machines throughout the state in the November municipal elections without any significant irregularities, Bysiewicz said.

But their accuracy has been called into question in New Hampshire, where one recount just ended and another is under way. Both were initiated by longshots from each party, though.

Under Connecticut law, election results from 10 percent of all voting precincts in the state must be audited, a mandate that was put in place when the switch to the new machines was made.

"I believe it's the strictest in the country, which calls for manual hand-counting of paper ballots to ensure that the machines are counting the votes accurately," Bysiewicz said.

Bysiewicz pointed out that only election officials can service the machines and their memory cards, according to state rules. Those officials also are supposed to feed test ballots through the machine before the election.

In addition to those measures, Bysiewicz said the state requires local registrars to randomly select a memory card from one machine prior to an election to send to computer science researchers at the University of Connecticut for testing to make sure it is not corrupt. The cards also get sent to UConn after an election for more testing, she said.

Luther Weeks, executive director of the Glastonbury-based watchdog group Connecticut Voters Count, said he has a number of concerns about the integrity of the process, however.

"The procedures are not ingrained enough, and they're not in the front of the minds of the registrars doing the work," Weeks said.

For example, Weeks said, in one case registrars received memory cards directly from the vendor that hadn't been sent to UConn for testing prior to the November election. Weeks also contested the results of the audits done after the election, saying 11.5 percent of the audit results after the November election were off by more than 1 percent.

In New Canaan, he said a Republican candidate for town council received 31 more votes from a machine than when the results were counted by hand.

John Silvestro, owner and president of LHS Associates, which supplies Connecticut with the optical scanners for all 169 municipalities, said he welcomed the scrutiny.

"I'm comfortable with everybody double-checking everything we do," Silvestro said. "I want people to know that their vote has been counted. Connecticut has actually gone out of its way to address every concern that they possibly can."

Richard Davies, the head election moderator in New Canaan, said the 31-vote discrepancy represented a fraction of the 4,700 votes cast for town council. He speculated that inadvertent ink markings on the ballots might have caused the machine to read them inaccurately.

"I think the machines are good," Davies said. "I'm glad people are keeping an eye on it. An honest and fair election is very important."

However, Phil Sherwood, legislative director of the consumer advocacy organization Connecticut Citizen Action Group, said the state needs tighter controls.

"There's no set number of ballots that are being sent to given polling places," Sherwood said. "What prevents a poll worker from grabbing a stack of ballots, filling them out and running them through the machine? Nothing."

Rep. Livvy Floren, R-149th District, who is a ranking member of the General Assembly's Government Administration and Elections Committee, said November's results give her confidence heading into Super Tuesday.

"My overall feeling is that it went very, very well," Floren said. "Remember that it was our first time."
Copyright © 2008, Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc.

Greenwich Time - January 26, 2008