CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM
The Office of Elections demonstrated how the new voter verifiable paper audit trail works in conjunction with the disabled-access electronic voting machine at a press conference last week at the State Capitol.
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An e-vote of confidence?
Electronic voting machine leaves paper trail, but some still not satisfied
The touch-screen Hart Intercivic eSlate voting machines used in the 2004 elections are back for this year's elections -- this time with a printer that will give elections officials a "paper trail" to allow the results to be double-checked manually.
The printer satisfies requirements of a state law passed in 2005 following criticism of the use of the paperless machines in the last election.
After a voter using the machine makes his selections, a paper printout will display the voter's choices. The printout remains in the machine behind a glass window. If the printout does not match the voter's selections, he or she can make the necessary changes before casting the ballot.
The League of Women Voters is one of the groups that criticized the use of touch-screen machines in the last elections and pushed for the paper requirement included in the 2005 law.
"At our national convention in June, the league adopted a pro-verifiable paper audit trail position, and I'm delighted the state stepped in and took those steps," said Sue Irvine, League of Women Voters Hawaii president.
Another group that lobbied for the law is Safe Vote Hawaii. But members who have seen the machines are not happy with them.
"I still recommend as many people as possible to use the optical scan," said Bart Dame of Safe Vote Hawaii.
The optical scan machines and ballots have been in use for Hawaii elections since 1998. The machines read and tally votes as people deposit marked paper ballots.
Dame said blind voters are not able to verify what is on the printout on the touch-screen machines. And he said it might be possible for someone to determine how a particular person voted, because the printouts appear in the order that people voted on a paper roll.
"That's really stretching it," said state chief election officer Dwayne Yoshina.
He said not even election officials have the desire, opportunity, time or means to go through a roll to try to determine how someone voted.
And he said there is audio verification for blind voters.
The electronic touch-screen voting machines were added in the last elections. Anyone can use them. But they were designed to allow disabled citizens to cast their votes without assistance.
In the last statewide elections, roughly 5 percent of the ballots were cast using the electronic machines, said Rex Quidilla, the state's voting services coordinator.
Electronic voting technology hasn't been around very long. And jurisdictions across the country continue to experience problems with electronic voting systems, according to news reports.
Alaska officials were forced to hand-count and manually upload vote totals from several precincts across the state last month because of problems with the state's new touch-screen voting machines.
In March, an electronic voting system added 100,000 votes to the result totals in the Tarrant County, Texas, primary election. The Hart voting machines used in Tarrant County are the same models that will be used later this month in the Hawaii primary elections.
Computer expert Jason Forester said Hart Intercivic claims to have corrected the software problem that caused the problem in Tarrant County. But he said anytime new software is written, new bugs and new problems are added..
Dame said the only way to make sure the machines are recording the votes accurately is to have meaningful audits. He said he would have preferred that the state select a system that would mark or print ballots for handicapped voters that could be read by the existing optical scan system.
Yoshina said the only other bidder for the job offered such a system, but the selection committee unanimously chose the Hart system because it is more accessible. He said the other system requires voters to handle their ballots, making it inaccessible to quadriplegics.