ELECTRONIC VOTING IS SECURE (4-2004)

Voters in Johnson County will be able to use the new 
computerized touchscreen voting machines in May’s primary 
election. The company who supplied the devices, Election 
Systems & Software of Nebraska, has posted a $10 million 
bond to assure that any problems with the software won’t 
cost the county.

The bond was necessary because the company did not install 
state-certified software in its machines when the county 
purchased them last year. There were no widespread problems 
due to the touchscreen machines in last fall’s elections, 
but the company was reprimanded last month by the Indiana 
Election Commission for allowing non-certified software to 
be used.

Touchscreen voting systems have been taking a lot of 
criticism across the county lately. Various problems with 
the devices were reported in California and other states 
during some local and state elections. And there is now a 
growing push for election officials to provide printers so 
that the computers can provide a paper record of how people 
voted.

The new touchscreen voting machines will be used in 34 
states this year. Critics fear that the electronic devices 
are subject to tampering. They say it might be possible for 
human error, or a malicious hacker, to change the results 
of an election by causing the machines to register a vote 
for a candidate other than the one voted for. And because 
the votes are stored electronically, there would be no 
independent verification of the results.

Four states have decided that a paper trail is necessary, 
to make recounts easier and to assure voters that their 
votes were cast properly. A printer would print out a paper 
receipt, which the voter could look over to verify that his 
or her votes were recorded properly. The receipt would then 
be held in a secure box in case a recount became necessary.

Several other states have shown interest in mandating a 
paper trail for electronic voting. Some advocates are even 
calling for Congress to pass a measure that would mandate a 
paper trail for electronic voting devices. Nevada is the 
only state that will be ready to implement the paper 
receipts for this fall’s election, though.

Others, however, are opposed to requiring a paper receipt. 
Election administrators are concerned that it would create 
an undue burden on them, because they would have to 
purchase and stock paper and ink, and they would need to 
make sure the printers keep working properly. A broken 
printer could cause massive delays during heavy voting 
periods.

Concerns that electronic voting is not secure enough, or 
that the process is prone to tampering by hackers, are 
largely unfounded. The fact that votes are recorded by 
electronic means instead of on paper should not cause 
concern for voters.

Consider that millions of dollars pass through cyberspace 
on a daily basis without so much as a penny unaccounted 
for. High-level cryptography and secure servers protect 
big-buck electronic transactions. 

People have been filing their taxes over the computer for 
several years. The IRS now highly recommends using e-
filing. Most of the money paid out each month by the Social 
Security Administration is paperless, being deposited 
directly into the recipient’s bank account electronically. 
And many firms offer direct deposit for their employees.

Just as people have learned to trust the process of 
electronic cash transfers, online banking, and other secure 
electronic transactions, they will come to realize that 
electronically-cast votes are just as secure. 

Spitting out a paper receipt might seem reasonable, but it 
is an unnecessary expense, and it would be of limited use, 
even in a recount. After all, paper ballots are notoriously 
unreliable. That’s why almost all recounts using paper 
ballots show at least a slightly different result than the 
original tabulation. 

Paper receipts can get lost, get smudged, be tampered with, 
or become unreadable for a number of reasons. Votes stored 
electronically on a hard disk drive in a computer, however, 
are much more secure. 

People have simply become used to handling their ballots. 
Electronic voting machines remove that tactile feedback. 
But just as everyone got used to pushing buttons to operate 
their CD player instead of picking up the stylus by hand 
and placing it on a vinyl album, they will also learn to 
trust the inherent security offered by electronic voting 
machines.