Electronic voting meets expectations

With the 2004 election and recount behind us, it's appropriate to take a look at how well e-voting met our goal of better elections in Mahoning County.
With e-voting, no voter lost a vote because of an "overvoted" ballot. If there was only one to elect, the machines only allowed a vote for one. There continue to be suggestions that overvoting in other Ohio counties on punch card machines may have cost both presidential candidates thousands of votes.
Undervoting (skipping or missing a candidate or issue) was reduced since e-voters have to at least look at each page or screen before making the final commitment to cast a vote. With our old paper ballot system, voters would sometimes forget to turn the ballot over to vote for issues on the backside of the ballot, something that doesn't happen with e-voting.
Voters had the benefit of easier to read ballots, with brightly lit screens, larger type and color, all of which made voting a little more comfortable.
E-voters had the benefit of "second chance" voting. In other words, voters had the chance to review their choices and make corrections before the final decision to cast a ballot. We had reports of persons who said they touched "Kerry" but "Bush" was selected, and vice versa. In every case, the voter got immediate visual feedback as to the choice they just made (or thought they made), and they could reselect the candidate of their choice. At the end of voting, each voter was presented with a review screen to allow a final confirmation of their choices, and still make changes if desired. With paper ballots, voters who make a selection error have to ask for a new ballot, something they may be reluctant to do. Thanks to e-voting, the presidential recount was not subject to "voter intent" issues. We didn't have to guess what a voter meant if they left hanging chads or poorly marked ovals on a paper ballot. E-voting brings a new level of certainty to the election process, something that should increase voter trust in the system.
Reliable and secure
Ballot security is now much improved. Our old paper ballots could be tampered with by someone with a pencil. The new machines are reliable and secure, with vote totals stored in three separate memory devices that are checked each time the machine is activated. On election night, the national media picked up a story about a Mahoning County voting machine reporting strange numbers and negative vote totals. This was strictly an election night issue related to a defective collection device used to transfer results between the machine and the board of elections. When the machines were brought back to the board, we were able to easily retrieve the correct vote totals.
As part of our official certification process, we rely on totals read directly from each of the machines, not from the collection devices. Voters can have even more confidence in the system now that precinct votes totals are tabulated, printed and posted at each polling place on election night. Citizens can review these polling place printouts to confirm the vote totals agree with the precinct results. These public reports are just one of the security features that help ensure vote totals can't be manipulated at a central point.
Beginning after 2006, our machines will allow us to offer a new "audio ballot" feature to permit sight impaired persons to vote unassisted, something that would have been impossible with our old paper system.
Mahoning County is saving $200,000 a year in ballot printing costs with a system that is more flexible and has greater security than our old system. In the 10-year period before installing touch screen machines, Mahoning County spent roughly $3 million on ballot printing, which is about what we paid for the new machines, a cost that will be largely reimbursed by federal funding.
While electronic voting has been a good choice for Mahoning County, we are sometimes reminded by press reports that no system is perfect. The key to good elections will always be the systems, procedures and people that make elections happen. In Ohio we are fortunate to have a particularly strong system of checks and balances with equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans watching each other throughout the process to ensure fair and accurate results.
X Mark E. Munroe is chairman of the Mahoning County Board of Elections.