From Deseret News archives:
Delay sought on voting machines
Approximately 50 people rallied on the Utah Capitol steps Tuesday, hoping to convince the state elections office to delay the purchase of new voting machines at least a year.
With that delay, the number of voting systems available will increase, as will the information about possible problems with existing systems, said Barbara Simmons, a former president of the Association for Computing Machinery.
The rally was part of the national Computer Ate My Vote Day, which included similar rallies in 23 other cities and a petition calling for machines that print paper ballots that organizers claimed had more than 350,000 signatures.
The Utah rally came five days after the state's Voting Equipment Selection Committee released its request for proposal (RFP) for new voting machines, which are required to be in place by the 2006 election. The changes are federally mandated through the Help America Vote Act, which was passed by Congress in 2001 responding to the voting debacle in Florida following the 2000 election.
"If I had a single message for the people doing the RFP, it would be wait," Simons said. "There are other systems in the pipeline."
Simons was one of three computer experts who warned about the multiple problems that could occur because of electronic voting machines. One of the primary concerns was the lack of a public "open source" computer code for the machines, which would allow computer programmers to test the programs for security flaws or processing errors.
Amy Naccarato, state elections director, said that she has heard the concerns about the source code, as well as worries about the lack of a printed ballot from many of the machines. However, because the state is facing the federal deadline, they do not have the luxury of waiting.
"It's very interesting," she said about using "open source" machines, "but unfortunately, it's not to the point where it is available right now."
As for the criticism that the state is rushing the purchase of the machines, Naccarato said that she actually has been afraid they are moving too slow. Even if the machines are purchased by the end of the year, as the committee hopes, they will not be delivered until next spring, giving county clerks only a few months to train before municipal elections.
By comparison, Utah is one of the last states to still be using punch-card ballots this year, while it is estimated that as many as 50 million people will be using electronic machines in 2002, and 20 percent of the nation's voters have already cast ballots electronically in previous elections.
The amount of voters using the machines this year is actually a concern for Alan Dechert, president of the nonprofit Open Voting Consortium. As more people use the machines, more problems are being discovered with both the machines and the companies making them.
"These decisions about how we're going to correct the voting problems are coming under more scrutiny every day," he said.
Contributing: Associated Press
E-mail: jloftin@desnews.com
Comments
- Seabrook's OT goal lifts Blackhawks 9:55 p.m.
- Birthdays for Monday, Nov. 16 9:50 p.m.
- Attorney to write book about sniper 9:49 p.m.
- Police seek clues in Crawford case 9:48 p.m.
- Blushing Boss at a loss 9:48 p.m.
- Immigrant tuition bill gets push 9:42 p.m.
- U.S. help has strings attached 9:42 p.m.
- Photo: Fort Hood victim mourned 9:41 p.m.
- Unhappy holidays for charities? 9:41 p.m.
- Teenage boy shot in the leg 9:32 p.m.
- BYU happy to escape with victory
228 - TCU creams U.
222 - Editorial: Mormons and gay rights
206 - Will state consider gay rights law?
149 - Letters: Strange breed in Utah
133 - Can BYU root for (ick) Utah Utes?
131 - RSL heads to MLS title game
124 - Utes remain silent about BCS
120 - Celtics crush Jazz
104 - TCU stays 4th in AP; Y. 19th, U. 23rd
90
Sears is holding a special VIP night Sunday, Nov. 15, in stores and online.
How do you handle kids and contests? Our oldest daughter, 7, is of the...
CNN is hardly raw news free of analysis and without bias.
Playing lousy is never good. If it were, BYU would have been a monster after...
TCU's footballers aren't any better than BYU's or Utah's, but they are better...
Hey all of you 2A teams and fans. Is San Juan so predictable? Im not sure....
BYU has been up and down under the watch of Bronco. IF I hear them say "its...
Thank you Jerry Sloan for 20 years of coaching the Jazz. But it is time to...
2004 was our year. 2008 was our year. 2009 looks to be TCU's year. I say...
True, football does make the most money and it has traditionally drawn the...
You summed it up perfectly -- also my reasons for voting ABB next year --...
Why add Sand Diego or UNLV? If you are adding programs becase they have been...


You can be the first to comment on this story.