Posted on: Friday, November 5, 2004

Electronic vote system still worries observers

Election 2004 Get detailed results from the general election and read about the races and candidates in our Election 2004 special report.

By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Staff Writer

Representatives of both major political parties said they are frustrated with the electronic voting system employed by the state this year, even though there were apparently few problems with it on Election Day.

Elections officials acknowledged the concerns and said they are considering requiring paper back-ups of electronic voting records.

Statewide, 27,470 voters used the electronic machines in Tuesday's election — about 6.3 percent of all voters. The machines were brought in for disabled voters, but were available to all.

A key issue, critics say, is that officials have no way to detect if the machines record data incorrectly.

The Hart InterCivic eSlate voting machines used by the state Office of Elections have no paper printout for voters to check that their votes were recorded accurately and that election officials can use to audit the poll results.

Republican Party activist and election volunteer Kitty Lagareta said that during the general election, poll observers were more or less unified in their concerns about the security of the electronic voting machines.

"We had no way to, and couldn't even attempt to, find out if the Hart machines were accurate. We urged people in our party to use the paper ballots," Lagareta said.

State elections chief Dwayne Yoshina said the eSlate voting system creates three electronic images that make it possible to audit election results. He said the system was repeatedly tested before the election and no problems came up.

"For people to say there's no record or the system doesn't have integrity, I don't think that's right," Yoshina said.

Others were less convinced.

Brian Davis of the Wailua Homesteads on Kaua'i refused to vote on the eSlate machine.

"The electronic voting machines can be so easily manipulated or subject to corrupted data, and there's no way to re-create" the votes cast via the machines, Davis said.

Democratic Party National Committee member Richard Port said he also is concerned.

"The company says there are three different places in the machine where information is recorded. But if one's bad, they could all be bad. Nobody in Hawai'i has sufficient expertise in these machines. The people who make the machines are the ones who tell you if they work or not.

"The state of Nevada has a lot of experience with electronic (gambling) machines, and it insists on a paper trail (for voting machines)," Port said. "Electronic voting machines are the future, but they're not ready for prime time."

Officials at Hart, which provided electronic voting machines across the country, said a paper trail is available, although it was not requested or supplied on the machines used in Hawai'i's 353 precincts.

"The eSlate already has an auditable paper trail, but not a voter verifiable paper audit trail that can be reviewed by a voter when casting his or her ballot," said Michelle Shafer, communications director for Hart. She said the firm hopes to have a voter-verifiable system available by early next year, but noted there are no state or national standards for what information the technology should be capable of providing.

"Bottom line is that we will produce and supply whatever our customers and their state laws dictate," she said.

Hart earlier this year received a contract to provide electronic voting in the 2004 and 2006 Hawai'i elections, but a state administrative hearings officer last month canceled its $3.8 million contract on the grounds that the firm did not have the required three years of experience providing electronic voting services.

Election officials haven't decided how to proceed in selecting a firm to provide electronic voting in 2006, said Rex Quidilla, state voter services coordinator.

"We have to provide it. It is the disabled-access component of our election," he said.

Advertiser reporter Curtis Lum contributed to this report. Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 245-3074.