Election reform not yet in cards

WASHINGTON — Despite reforms passed after vote-counting problems in Florida during the 2000 presidential election added "hanging chad" to the American vocabulary, most Utahns will still vote on punch-card systems this election year.

Utah is among 22 states that will still, at least in part, use such systems this year, according to a state-by-state survey released Thursday by www.electionline.org. That study also ranked Utah in the middle of the pack among states for its overall election reform efforts, saying it made some advances but has room for improvement.

That doesn't surprise state elections director Amy Naccarato, who says Utah is being cautious in selecting new voting equipment. "We don't need to be the fastest one or the first state to do this. Our intent is to be careful."

Doug Chapin, director of the election Web site, said, "Millions of voters will return to the polls this year to find much has changed since the controversial election four years ago. However, many other voters will vote in exactly the same way they did in 2000."

Voters in 23 of Utah's 29 counties are among those who will still be using punch-card systems — and hoping not to leave any hanging or pregnant chad — according to the State Elections Office.

The only counties not using such systems are two — Emery and San Juan — that will use optical imaging systems, and four others that will use paper ballots: Daggett, Piute, Rich and Wayne.

After the troublesome 2000 elections, Congress passed the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) to help states afford better election systems. Utah is among states that accepted money through it but filed for a waiver to allow use of punch-card systems until 2006, the study said.

Chapin said many states are not yet satisfied that other election systems are more reliable, or they have moved slowly in obtaining them because Congress has been slow to provide much money.

"Electronic voting machines have been praised as the future of voting, but our research indicates that these replacements for punch cards have raised just as many questions about accuracy and reliability among some experts and state officials," Chapin said.

For example, California, Nevada and Oregon are requiring voter-verified paper audit trails for electronic systems that can be used in case of contested races.