Fixes for accurate vote counts

[babylonsister]

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0227/p08s02-comv.html

Fixes for accurate vote counts
A House bill would insist on paper trails in voting disputes. Training poll workers is a bigger issue.
The Monitor's View

snip//

The proposed bills, which would amend the 2002 Help America Vote Act, might have helped. They stipulate that electronic voting machines used in federal elections must leave a "paper trail" – paper ballots or receipts that voters can use to verify their choices before their vote is "cast." Paper would beat machine in any dispute, unless there's "clear and convincing" evidence that the paper record has been compromised.

Even if voters verify their choices, however, paper ballots can be – and are – mishandled. Too often ballots or boxfuls of ballots are handled by only one person and out of sight of others. Or ballot boxes are improperly transported. The bills in Congress would be stronger it they set up a third "arbiter" – for example, the immediate transmission of a vote to a secure archive off site.

Yet such fixes aren't enough. Researchers with groups such as the Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project have noted that new voting technologies have shaved the number of "uncounted" votes – either intentional or unintentional "non-votes" – from 1.91 percent in 2000 to 1.07 percent four years later. The challenge: Even in states using the latest high-tech voting tools, old problems with registration, ballot design and mishandling, and poorly trained election workers, crop up.

By one estimate, some 2 million to 3 million voters in 2000 were "lost" because of registration issues. Often, poll workers receive minimal training or are not rigorously tested – even on tasks as simple as fixing printer jams. And they need tighter supervision on Election Day.

In their quest to ensure that every ballot counts, federal, state, and local election officials need to redouble their efforts to cast a wider net.