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Panel Backs Guideline Favoring Voting-Machine Verification
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In unanimously approving the resolution yesterday, members of the panel made it clear that they would not recommend that states stop using such systems "at this time" as long as proper security measures are in place.
The panel also said the commission should ensure that all voters -- including disabled ones -- "can verify the independent voting record." Advocates for people with disabilities have said that existing systems of verification, such as electronic voting machines that show voters a printed summary of their choices before they cast their ballots, would not be accessible to blind voters.
The voting-machine industry will have to come up with new technology to satisfy the need to provide verification accessible to all voters, said James C. Dickson, vice president for governmental affairs at the American Association of People with Disabilities. That means it could be 2020 before the voting systems envisioned by the panel are "widely available in polling places."
A supporter of the paperless electronic machines, Dickson disputed the notion that the panel's resolution meant the end of an era for such systems. "Era, schmera," he said. "There isn't any money to buy anything else."
The panel considered a similar resolution Monday but deadlocked and failed to pass it. The version adopted yesterday contained new language that grandfathers in existing systems, calls on the commission to ensure that verification systems are universally accessible and credits election officials and voting-machine makers for adopting security controls.
Michael Newman, a spokesman for the National Institute of Standards and Technology, said the panel, which the institute is advising, would have until the end of July to prepare a draft set of standards that would then be considered by the Election Assistance Commission.
The commission would solicit public input before adopting new standards. The standards are voluntary, but many state laws require voting systems to meet federal or national criteria before they can be used.
Staff writers Tim Craig, John Wagner and Nikita Stewart contributed to this report.
