BBV - response from Connecticut

I sent a lengthy email detailing my concerns about BBV to the Sec of State of Connecticut. I got a response pretty quickly on this issue, so I was impressed. But, it seems like the state is going about it correctly. Or at least more cautiously than others.
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This e-mail is in response to your recent correspondence expressing concerns regarding the use of electronic voting systems in the State of Connecticut.

As the Office responsible for the fair and impartial administration of
elections in the State of Connecticut, we are committed to ensuring that any electronic voting system approved for use in the State of Connecticut accurately records all votes cast during an election.

It is important to keep in mind that the new federal law, Help America Vote Act of 2002, now requires all States to place at least one electronic voting system in each polling location by January 1, 2006. Unlike other states, our Office is proceeding in a very cautious and deliberate manner as we move toward complying with this new federal mandate. Our Office has conducted a demonstration of electronic voting equipment in eight Connecticut towns in
November 2003. These towns were: Hartford, West Hartford, Wilton,
Southington, Griswold, Sharon, Cromwell, and Middletown.

As part of this demonstration project voters were asked to complete an exit poll of their experience. The League of Women Voters and the University of Connecticut administered this exit poll. After a careful review of the results of this poll, a decision will be made regarding the type of electronic voting equipment Connecticut will use in the future.

This Office has reviewed several reports regarding electronic voting
equipment and has found that, in addition to the negative reports, there are several reports in support of such equipment. Our Office will continue to monitor all reports regarding the electronic equipment and assess each such report individually as they are published.

One of the many positive features of the new electronic equipment is that it does allow many voters with disabilities the opportunity to vote in a private and independent manner for the first time in their lives. For example, with lever voting machines a sight impaired or blind person must be accompanied by another individual to assist in the casting of their vote. The electronic voting machines are equipped with headphones so that a sight impaired or blind person may vote independently and privately. According to the Governor’s Office of Protection and Advocacy this would allow an additional 200,000 people to participate in our electoral process.

All electronic voting systems used in the State of Connecticut will be “stand-alone” machines meaning; they will not be hooked up as part of a network, to the Internet or to each other. We believe that this decision greatly increases the security of the electronic voting systems and maintains the integrity of the vote.

Finally, some of the machines used in the most current demonstration project provide the voter with a paper record that indicates how the voter cast their vote. This receipt is kept in a secure “lock box” and would only be available in the case of manual recounts. With this added feature, the electronic voting system is even more secure than the lever voting system currently in use because the voter is assured, through a paper record, that their votes were properly recorded. Legislation was considered in the most recent legislative session that would have required any electronic voting system purchased and used after January 1, 2006 to produce a voter verified
paper receipt. I did testify in favor of this legislation when I appeared before the Government Administration and Elections Committee but ultimately the legislation did not pass. Congress is considering the issue and the Elections Assistance Commission is developing standards and recommendations for the use of electronic voting systems and voter verified paper receipts. We are closely monitoring these developments to insure that any machine we purchase conforms to all legal requirements and the highest possible standards.

"some of the machines used in the most current demonstration project provide the voter with a paper record that indicates how the voter cast their vote. This receipt is kept in a secure “lock box” and would only be available in the case of manual recounts"

Will they go to a requirement that all BBV have a paper trail?

Is one of the towns testing the paper trail electronic voting machines, and have been using them since the 2002 election, so I'm not sure what type of machines are on the Sec. States list.

You get a large single sheet ballot (11x17) which you mark with the provided black marker. After filling the ballot in a booth, you insert it into a scanner that reads it and then drops the ballot into a large box. The ballot can be inserted in any of the four possible ways (face up or down, top to bottom, bottom to top) and will be read correctly. After it is scanned, the paper original remains in the box under the scanner.

On a whole, I like this system, as unlike our old mechanical level system, there is a paper record of each vote cast.

:-)

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