Electronic voting systems did not fare well in region

The two counties in our region that use touch-screen voting machines are today looking into what went wrong last Tuesday -- rather than singing the praises of the personal electronic ballot cartridge, the vote tabulator and the vote tallying machine. Elections officials certainly aren't boasting about the efficiency of the paperless system.
In Mahoning County, the complete but unofficial results were finalized at 1:30 a.m. Wednesday, long after technologically backward county boards of elections had called it a night.
In Mercer County, the elections board did not complete its vote count until 3:30 a.m.
Mahoning and Mercer are the only two counties in the Mahoning and Shenango valleys that have electronic voting systems. Elections officials in both are trying to determine why the systems did not live up to promise.
While such in-house reviews are to be commended, they will not satisfy the critics who contend that the sanctity of the vote remains the bone of contention, not Election Day glitches.
About a year ago, in advocating a printed receipt of each voter's ballot, we argued that a paper record is necessary to provide a method of conducting a physical recount and to provide all voters with physical proof that their votes count.
In light of what occurred Election Day last week, we renew our call for the addition of a voter-verified audit trail to the electronic systems.
Complaints
Indeed, we call on the secretaries of state of Ohio and Pennsylvania to conduct their own investigations to determine whether the complaints being heard from residents of Mahoning and Mercer counties have any merit. For instance, is there any basis to the claim that a vote for one candidate actually resulted in a vote for his opponent? If there was such an occurrence, can voters rest assured that corrective action did, indeed, result in the right candidate being credited with the vote?
A paper receipt would have allowed each voter to know that his or her ballot was correct. An electronic review, which the touch-screen machines permit, was not proof in hand.
There were other problems reported in the two counties, some technical and others human.
When protocol is not followed to count the ballots in a touch-screen machine and that leads to some races showing votes of negative 25 million, it is more than a glitch. What are voters to think when the personal electronic ballot cartridge that is designed to extract the votes from the touch-screen machines spews out garbage?
Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell has received high marks nationally for the way he conducted the election and for his even-handed application of elections laws.
Given the record number of voters who went to the polls, resulting in exceedingly long lines in some places, Blackwell is again advocating the expanded use of absentee ballots. Currently, a voter must pass an eligibility test in order to get an absentee ballot. The secretary of state would like to open absentee voting to all registered voters.
We think that's a good idea and should be pursued by the General Assembly.
Meanwhile, what occurred in Mahoning and Mercer counties deserves special attention because residents are being asked to blindly trust the electronic voting systems.