The Virginia Organizing Project : A first step toward verifiable voting: no new paperless voting machines

A first step toward verifiable voting: no new paperless voting machines

As of July 1, Virginia’s local governments can no longer buy new direct record electronic (DRE) election machines. After that date, localities needing new election machines as their populations grow or their DREs break down are expected to turn to optical scanning machines that read paper ballots.

DREs do not produce a paper record of individual votes that permits voters to verify that their votes have been properly recorded, and that can be preserved for auditing the machines or recounting close elections. The Virginia Organizing Project joined with other members of the Verifiable Voting Coalition of Virginia in advocating for legislation requiring all election machines to produce voter-verifiable paper trails.

“This badly needed change was supported by legislators of both parties and by most Virginians. The main opposition to change came from local election officials,” said Alex Blakemore, founding member and computer security expert of Virginia Verified Voting.

Early in the process, the objections of these local election officials led legislators to take out provisions requiring optical scan voting machines by 2010, as well as requirement for audits of local machines.

Both the House and Senate passed amended bills by large bi-partisan majorities. Then the state association of electoral boards and the registrars persuaded Governor Tim Kaine to offer an amendment delaying the ban until July 1, 2008. While some registrars told legislators they “could not be ready” to stop buying DREs by this summer, others candidly admitted that their real purpose was to gain time to try to reverse the ban in the 2008 legislative session.

In response, the bills’ patrons, Senator Jeannemarie Devolites Davis and Delegate Tim Hugo, held a press conference attended by members of several citizen groups, including Virginia Verified Voting, the League of Women Voters, New Era for Virginia, and the Southern Coalition for Secured Voting.

“In addition to the press conference, a citizens’ campaign of letters, phone calls and personal visits reminded legislators that Virginia remains at risk of a Florida-style election disaster as long as its reliance on paperless machines continues,” said Carol Doran Klein, the political director of New Era for Virginia. “Citizen lobbyists did what they had to do, including leaving home before dawn to get to 7 a.m. subcommittee hearings.”

Blakemore added, “Our partnership with VOP meant a lot. At a critical point, VOP members called key Senators from parts of Virginia where we don’t know many people. We also appreciated the sage advice from VOP’s Legislative Director Ben Greenberg.”

Nonetheless, the pressure from local registrars and election officials caused many legislators who had supported the bills to vote for the delaying amendment. Party politics also played a role; although the DRE ban drew bi-partisan support, the bills’ sponsors are both Republicans, while the governor is a Democrat. Some Democratic legislators who had been among the staunchest supporters of the bills as they passed the House and Senate voted for the delaying amendment out of loyalty to the governor.

When the vote was taken, the governor’s amendment passed in the Senate, but failed in the House by a narrow vote. The bills went back to Governor Kaine, who signed them this time around.

“While direct record electronic voting machines are still in use in Virginia, the handwriting is on the wall. All Virginians can look forward to a day, not too far off, when every vote we cast will have a paper record to back it up,” said Klein.

For more information, contact Ivy Main of the New Electoral Reform Alliance of Virginia at ivymain@cox.net.

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