News

E-voting: List of Vulnerable States

Several U.S. states still are not doing all they can to ensure the accuracy of votes over electronic voting machines and 10 states received inadequate grades in three of four categories of safeguards

By By Grant Gross, IDG News Service (Washington Bureau)

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The report comes too late for changes to be made this year, added David Beirne, executive director of the Election Technology Council, a trade group representing e-voting machine vendors.

"With less than three weeks to go, the election has already begun and now is not the time for new procedures to be adopted," Beirne said. "It is also unlikely that the Department of Justice would grant approval for such changes this close to the election. While well intentioned, the report and recommendations may only drive fear for the voting public, which is not productive at this stage in the process."

The report also fails to recognize steps taken by county election officials to ensure against fraud or errors, Beirne said. "The call for procedural safeguards has been recognized by the elections community in recent years and there is little question that the state and local election officials will be prepared for Nov. 4," he added.

The report points out several shortcomings, but most states are headed in the right direction, Smith said. "Over the next couple of years, I see significant improvement," she said.

In 2004, only eight states had requirements in place for election systems to have paper backups, and a few more used paper backups during the election, Smith said.

This year, 32 states have either voter-verifiable paper ballots, or voter-verifiable paper record printers connected to voting machines statewide, the report said. Four states -- Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Tennessee -- have laws that take effect in 2009 or 2010 requiring voter-verified paper records.

Arkansas, Colorado and Mississippi have paper in most counties. The District of Columbia and Florida have paper ballot systems in all counties, along with paperless DREs, and Florida will eliminate paperless systems altogether by 2012, the report said.