LIBERADIO(!)

Yesterday, despite a last ditch effort by Democratic House Minority Leader Gary Odom (D-Nashville), secure and verifiable elections in Tennessee were dealt a serious blow when HB614 – which would delay the implementation of paper ballots from the 2010 general election to the 2012 general election and would also replace a mandatory hand counted audit of a certain percentage of the ballots – passed through the House 70-23.

As Gathering to Save Our Democracy, Common Cause, the League of Women Voters of Tennessee, VerifiedVoting.org, Voter Action, and VotersUnite.org, stated in a press release, yesterday’s floor debate missed the mark:

Arguments made during the Wednesday night debate focused on the 2005 voluntary federal standards, which Tennessee law now requires for all voting equipment. Rep. Gary Moore (D-Joelton) spoke of the need to wait for paper ballot scanners compliant with the 2005 voluntary guidelines.

“Rep. Moore’s argument is like wanting to wait to put a roof on your house until fancier shingles come along, when all the while there are perfectly good materials to keep the rain out,” VerifiedVoting.org president Pamela Smith said. “The argument ignores the TACIR recommendations back in 2008, and ignores the findings of other major state reviews of voting systems in Kentucky, Ohio, Connecticut, and California,” she said. “States that have taken a serious look at voting system security are not saying, ‘Let’s wait for new paper ballot scanners.’ Current paper ballot scanners have proven themselves time and again in live elections, so in the last two years states like Kentucky, Florida, California, and Iowa are moving to better systems that are available now,” she said. Existing optical scan systems have proven highly accurate, she added. A study of the recount of the 2008 Minnesota US Senate election showed paper ballot scanners to be 99.99% accurate.

Removing the requirement for a hand counted audit flies against the recommendations of many computer scientists. “HB 614’s new “audit” scheme would be an ineffective way of detecting software error. It would take less time and be just as effective to make election officials do a brief incantation and certify the election,” Smith said.

“Last year, over 50 counties in Kentucky switched to paper ballot scanners. Kentucky is ahead of Tennessee in trustworthy voting,” said Ellen Theisen, Director of VotersUnite.org.

On Monday, a group of computer scientists sent lawmakers a letter explaining the need for a hand count to check electronic vote tallies. Over half the states have conducted a hand-count sample to verify electronic vote tallies, or plan to do so in future elections. Hand-counted audits also were also recommended by the 2008 report of the Tennessee Advisory Commission in Intergovernmental Relations (pdf).

HB 614 amends the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act (TVCA). The Voter Confidence Act was enacted in 2008 after TACIR recommended that the state adopt voting technology with a reliable, independent paper record of every vote, and that election officials use those records to conduct routine hand-counted audits of electronic vote tallies. When the law takes effect, all votes in Tennessee elections will be cast on paper ballots read by electronic scanners.

The state has sufficient federal funds on hand to pay for the law’s shift to better equipment. All but two counties in Tennessee now use purely electronic voting machines with no paper trail. In recent years, paperless electronic voting systems have been strongly criticized by leading computer scientists. The TACIR report noted that if Tennessee’s electronic voting machines store votes incorrectly because of malfunction or fraud, recounts are “useless.”

“Delaying the implementation of the Voter Confidence Act until 2012 (if it is even implemented then) does nothing whatsoever to protect and honor our franchise,” said Bernie Ellis of Gathering to Save Our Democracy. “It’s hard to fathom the legislature doing the exact right thing just last year, and now trying to do the wrong thing. It makes no sense at all. Voters deserve better,” said Smith.

The group, and just about every citizen in Tennessee, urges the Senate to reject the delay. The Senate will take up the bill this afternoon at 3 PM.