Stephanie Harris of Coalition for Peace Action
Reports and worries about the reliability and security of electronic touchscreen voting machines (DRE’s) rose to a crescendo before the November election, but now that the dust has settled, the Legislature is once again at work to delay implementation of the Voter Verified Paper Ballot law of 2005. The State Government Committee of the Assembly approved A.3458, which would replace a Jan. 1, 2009 deadline for implementation with a pilot project which would require one municipality of every county to purchase a printer (not yet certified) to attach to their existing DRE’s, and test them until 2010. This, despite the fact that not one official in the room of legislators and election officials liked the printers or found them “user friendly.” The bottom line is no verified voting for two more years. The cost to taxpayers: $1 million.
The January 2009 deadline of the law is looming and, after three years, the state has still not come up with a solution, two deadline extensions later. The solution, which more than 20 states have used, could have been implemented three years ago: replace the DRE’s with paper ballots and precinct-based optical scan machines. Miami-Dade County in Florida estimated a potential savings of millions of dollars over a five-year period, and calculations for New Jersey have confirmed that we too could save money.
If more study is deemed necessary, a comparison of the experience of voters and election officials in the 26 states which use this voting technology could be conducted in far less time than two years and for much less money than $1 million. During this study period, the state could invite vendors to apply for certification of their optical scanners, so counties would have a real choice in the marketplace.
Every citizen who is fed up by the procrastination of the state to ensure verifiable elections should write to Assembly Speaker Roberts and Senate President Cody to demand paper ballots now.
Stephanie Harris, chair
Task Force on Voting Integrity
of the Coalition for Peace Action
Hopewell
