Voting Officials Hoping For New Technology By November

By John Voket

By the time Newtown’s Registrars of Voters return from their annual state conference next week, they will know if Newtown voters will be some of the first in Connecticut to use new optical scanning technology at local polling places this November.

Registrar LeReine Frampton said she requested Newtown be provided with a number of the first edition machines, which are among only about 960 available for distribution before Election Day, 2006.

“We’ll know by next week if we’re going to have the new optical scanning machines in our polls this November,” Ms Frampton said. “This will give us enough time to demonstrate them and do the training necessary to use them.”

While the optical scanners have actually been in use in several Connecticut communities on a pilot program of the Secretary of the State’s office for several years, the technology has been what many state registrars hoped for all along. Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz, however, spent many months considering and testing fully computerized voting terminals before scrapping plans to purchase them by the hundreds.

Instead, she announced in August that her office was in favor of utilizing the simpler, less expensive, and by many accounts, more accurate alternative to fulfill federal Help America Vote Act requirements.

Ms Bysiewicz announced on August 4 that her office entered into a contract with LHS Associates of Massachusetts to provide optical scan technology to replace lever voting machines across the state, which were outlawed by the federal legislation, primarily because of the difficulties they impose to handicapped voters.

“As our office considered possible new voting technologies, the principles of security, accessibility, and reliability guided our decisionmaking,” Secretary Bysiewicz said. “We heard from thousands of citizens, academics, and advocacy groups concerned about the pitfalls of touch-screen voting technology. Touch-screen technology, in its current state of development, is simply is not ready for ‘prime time’ herein Connecticut.”

Michael Fischer, a computer science professor from Yale University and a member of TrueVote CT who announced a campaign to defeat proposed touch screen terminals here in Newtown last year, expressed his enthusiasm for the decision in a letter to Ms Bysiewicz.

“Optical scan is the best voting technology available for the replacement of Connecticut’s lever machines. It is cost-effective, more transparent than DRE [Direct Recording Electronic] machines, and produces a voter-verified paper record,” Mr Fischer wrote. “I commend the Secretary of the State for choosing this alternative.”

Additionally, Connecticut will meet the requirements of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) for the November election by entering into a one-year contract with IVS, LLC to provide one voting machine accessible to those with disabilities in each polling place in the state.

“For the first time in 70 years, Connecticut citizens with disabilities will be truly welcome at the polls, and they will have the opportunity to vote privately and independently. This is a tremendous step forward for our state,” Ms Bysiewicz said.

The IVS machines allow voters with disabilities to use a telephone at the polling place to cast their votes. The 2002 HAVA law requires that voters with disabilities be able to vote privately and independently by November 2006, Secretary Bysiewicz said.

According to Chris Kuell, second vice president of the National Federation of the Blind of Connecticut, “The National Federation of the Blind has long fought for the right of all Americans to vote privately, independently, and securely. NFB members in Connecticut are looking forward to casting their votes using the IVS Vote by Phone system in this November’s elections.”

Finally, Secretary Bysiewicz announced that her office has entered into a formal partnership with the University of Connecticut’s Department of Computer Science and Engineering, in which UConn will assist in certification and acceptance testing of the new voting technology.

“Of all of the concerns raised by citizens, academics and advocates, security was number one,” she said. “UConn has played an integral role in our decisionmaking up to this point.

“They have reviewed vendor proposals, tested equipment, and made recommendations for maintaining the highest level of security in our election process. We look forward to drawing upon their tremendous expertise as we move forward,” Secretary Bysiewicz added.

The move to optical scanning technology was also met with praise from Newtown First Selectman Herb Rosenthal, who stood beside Ms Bysiewicz as she made the announcement about the new technology. Mr Rosenthal endorsed the new voting technology in his capacity as president of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities.

“These are the safest and most secure machines,” Mr Rosenthal told The Bee recently. “Every paper ballot cast stays locked right in the machine in case of a need for a manual recount, but the voter can review a receipt before verifying and casting their final vote.”

Mr Rosenthal said two scanners and one handicapped terminal will be provided for every polling place, and the privacy booths will all be underwritten by federal HAVA grants that were already delivered to Connecticut.

“These seem like the best solution, and will not impose an undue burden on the taxpayers in Connecticut’s towns and cities,” he said.

Both the LHS and IVS machines will be purchased with federal HAVA funds. The LHS machines will cost $15.7 million, and the IVS machines will cost approximately $1 million.

Ms Frampton said after all the new equipment is purchased and the training for voting officials complete, there will still be federal funds left over to continue researching even better, safer, and more efficient technology for the future.

She believes expanding the number of privacy booths beyond the number of mechanical voting machines will expedite the voting experience, especially once residents see how easy the new system is.

“Before a voter inserts their final ballot, they can have as many as three chances to change their vote if any mistakes are made on the voting form, but the scannable form will look just like the sheet inside the machine booth. But instead of pulling down handles, they will fill in little bubbles with a pencil like the old Iowa tests,” she said.

The new system will also save taxpayers money because ultimately, polling places will require fewer staffers, she said. If Newtown is provided with the scanner technology before November’s elections, Ms Frampton said she is planning to have several public demonstration sessions to help familiarize voters with the new system.