Md. House Approves Paper Ballots

Virginia and the District use a mix of touch-screen and paper ballots. Legislation to require a paper trail in Virginia failed this session.

Dan Seligson, editor of Electionline.org, a nonpartisan group that monitors election reforms, said the critical issue in every state is voter confidence that can be eroded by a good public relations campaign against the electronic machines.

"Once word gets out that there is concern over the lack of paper, that begins to spread," Seligson said. "Whether or not the machines are less secure than they were before the campaign started is another story."

Questions were raised in 2003 about Maryland's Diebold machines after Johns Hopkins University computer security experts found that the software could be easily hacked.

The push for paper -- backed by the small but vocal Takoma Park-based group TrueVoteMD -- gained new strength last month when Ehrlich announced he had lost confidence in the state Board of Elections' ability to conduct accurate elections. The governor, who had been a champion of the Diebold machines, also called for a paper trail for the first time.

Maryland's top elections official, Linda H. Lamone, has characterized the proposed switch as a step backward and said paper provides a "false sense of security." Lamone and Board of Elections Chairman Gilles W. Burger have said that an optical scan system, which relies on hand-marked ballots, can leave questions about whom the voters intended to choose and can create printing problems.

John T. Willis, the former secretary of state who pressed for the current system, said the legislative proposal would be worse than any perceived problems.

"There is no evidence of anything wrong with Maryland elections," he said, citing a study by the California Institute of Technology and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology showing that Maryland had the lowest rate of voter error in the nation in 2004. "It's a very distressing way to do public policy."

Miller and other Democratic leaders have said that the governor's position on the state's voting system is based on politics and his opposition to plans for early voting. In January, the General Assembly overrode Ehrlich's veto of a bill to allow voting at some polling places five days before an election. In February, Ehrlich wrote the elections board chairman saying that concerns about the security of voting machines would be exacerbated in Maryland because of early voting.

Staff writer Yolanda Woodlee contributed to this report.