Opinion: Ballots need manual review for accuracy

By: Marcia Grann O'Brien
Narragansett Times, Rhode Island
12/08/2006

http://tinyurl.com/ybzyt8

In the blow-out of Democratic victories this election year, it shouldn't be overlooked that there were some very tight races, including one in East Greenwich that was decided by a single vote.

Understandably, the loser of any squeaker is going to ask for a recount, as happened in several races this year. For nearly a decade, Rhode Islanders have voted by filling out paper ballots that are then fed into an optical scanner called the Optech Eagle. When recounts are requested, the Board of Elections complies - by reinserting the ballots into a scanner.

Some of those ballots are rejected by the machine, and this year candidates asked to view them to see whether "voter intent" could be discerned. For example, if someone circled a candidate's name rather than completing an arrow, the machine would not count that ballot.

The Board of Elections balked at the suggestion, saying it would open "a can of worms." (We translate that to mean "too much work" for these folk employed by the taxpayers.)
The candidates took their case to Superior Court, where Judge Stephen J. Fortunato, Jr. ruled in their favor. Board of Elections acting chairman Thomas Iannitti appealed, but Fortunato was upheld by the Rhode Island Supreme Court.

The scanners have made voting an easy privilege: no more pulling levers from top to bottom on the former mechanical machines. Instead, simple strokes of a pen are needed before feeding one's choices into the scanner. Results are available almost instantly when the polls close.

By law, the paper ballots must be preserved for 22 months. That's fine; it's a paper trail. But what's the point of having one if they cannot be manually examined when questions arise?

Voting-rights advocacy groups maintain that no electronic machine should be the final word in tabulation. Rhode Island doesn't audit any ballots to ensure accuracy, and we should. Nor does the state - until now - allow manual recounts. And that's the only way to ultimately gauge accuracy.
Our up-to-date scanners were put in place when Congressman Jim Langevin served as secretary of state. He is co-sponsor of a bill introduced in Congress by Rep. Rush Holt of New Jersey. It would amend the 2002 Help America Vote Act to require that all states use either paper ballots or voter-verified receipts in the event of the need for a manual recount. (The receipts aren't used in Rhode Island. And some states use touchscreen systems with no manual backup at all.)

Langevin is on record in support of manual recount of ballots where there are unresolved questions.
Members of the Board of Elections should resign themselves to doing a little extra work that, in the end, will ensure fair elections.