by Ivy Main, New Era for VA

“The WINvote machines failed. The software failed (machines crashed throughout, voters reported difficulty in getting their choices to record), the hardware failed (some machines required new batteries, some needed to be ‘jiggled’ back into operation, modems failed to transmit data) and the procedures for handling Election Day problems were non-existent (machines were removed by non-Electoral Board employees, and they were taken from the plain view of the election officers).” – From Operation Ballot Integrity, a report of the Fairfax County Republican Committee on the election of November 3, 2003.

“. . .the party will never relax its efforts until the integrity of the ballot and the purity of elections shall be fully guaranteed in every state.” – From the National Republican Party platform, 1892.

The 2003 elections were the first ones in which Virginia widely used electronic voting machines. In Fairfax County, the Republican Party had so many concerns with this election that it published a 30-page report on problems with the machines in their jurisdiction, quoted above. As a result, Delegate Tim Hugo and Senator Jeannemarie Devolites Davis introduced legislation in the Virginia legislature. This legislation failed the first time around, but it will be re-introduced in the 2007 session.

In the 2006 elections for a U.S. Senator from Virginia, the press noted that on some voting machines, part of then-candidate Jim Webb’s name disappeared on the screens of some voting machines. In Shenandoah County, the election authorities ran out of paper ballots at the voting sites because of widespread voter distrust of voting machines.

Are these problems minor glitches inevitable with the introduction of a new technology? Or are they serious issues?

Jeremy Epstein, a long-time computer security expert, has an informed answer. “In the 2006 general election, about 83 percent of Virginians voted on machines that have no independent audit trail — we have to take the word of the machine for vote totals,” Epstein said. “Adding a voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) is a critical step to restoring public confidence that the vote totals published on election night truly reflect how voters cast their ballots. That’s why I and others in the Verifiable Voting Coalition of Virginia support the Hugo/Devolites Davis bill, requiring a VVPAT, and making that paper trail the ballot of record for purposes of recounts.”

The Verifiable Voting Coalition of Virginia is a coalition of grassroots groups, political parties and others who believe that public confidence in the integrity and security of our elections is of paramount importance in a democracy. Many citizens and organizations have joined the Coalition for its 2007 General Assembly effort. In addition to the Virginia Organizing Project and New Era for VA, members of the Verifiable Voting Coalition of Virginia include the League of Women Voters, the Southern Coalition for Secured Voting, Common Cause, and the Virginia Libertarian Party.

In the summer of 2006, Princeton University’s Center for Information Technology Policy released a study showing that a typical paperless electronic voting machine can be hacked in under a minute, its software invisibly altered to steal votes and, through a computer virus, can be made to similarly alter other machines. Conceivably, the outcome of an election could be changed without voters, candidates, or election officials knowing it. The report and a video about it are available on the web at http://itpolicy.princeton.edu/voting/.

Currently, most Virginia jurisdictions use direct record electronic voting machines with no paper record or other auditing capability. All of them share this vulnerability to software attack — or just simple programming errors. Worse, the machines’ lack of voter-verifiability and a paper audit trail means there may be no way for election officials to detect or correct inaccurate vote counts.

“Had Senator Allen requested a recount in his recent very close race, there would have been no original records to go back and count, just as in last year’s extremely close Attorney General race there were no original records to recount,” Epstein said.

The Verifiable Voting Coalition of Virginia believes that all voting machines should include a paper record allowing voters to verify that the machines have accurately recorded their votes. The paper record can consist of the ballot itself, where voters mark a paper ballot that is read by a scanner, or may be produced by a printer. In either case the paper must be kept secure and be available for auditing or recount. Regular random audits should occur to ensure the accuracy of the voting machines, and where discrepancies are found, should trigger a broader investigation of the cause of the errors. Finally, in the case of discrepancies, the paper record should be treated as the ballot of record unless there is reason to do otherwise (as where the paper is unreadable).

Last year two citizen groups, Virginia Verified Voting (VAVV) and the New Electoral Reform Alliance for Virginia (New Era for VA), worked closely with Delegate Tim Hugo and Senator Jeannemarie Devolites Davis to push for such legislation in the Virginia legislature. When Delegate Hugo and Senator Devolites Davis introduce these bills again, they will have support from this year’s broader Coalition.

You can join in this critical push to safeguard your right to secure elections. Here’s how you can help:

1. Visit http://www.vavv.org. Then, e-mail info@vavv.org with your name and contact information, including your physical address. This information will be used to contact you about this issue, especially if your senator or delegate is a key vote.
2. Set aside Tuesday, January 16 to come to Richmond for a lobby day to meet with legislators and urge that they pass this bill. It’s fun, and there will be training sessions with relevant materials. There will be some other important hearings in Richmond in January and February where a strong citizens presence is needed.
3. Write or call your state senators, delegates, friends, neighbors and coworkers about the need for verifiable elections in Virginia. Write your local paper. If your legislators hold town meetings, go and make yourself heard.

This is the year to make verifiable elections the law in Virginia.

Ivy Main is the Policy Director of the New Electoral Reform Alliance of Virginia. She can be reached at ivymain@cox.net.