Questions Linger on Reliability of Electronic Voting in N.J.

[Earth Bound Misfit]

Source:Yahoo! Finance

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- A trial to decide whether touch-screen voting machines are reliable or should be scrapped has been set for May, but the outcome almost certainly will come too late to change how millions of New Jerseyans vote in the presidential election.

Mercer County Superior Court Judge Linda Feinberg has been asked to decide if the state's 10,000 electronic voting machines should continue to be used in elections, as the state contends, or whether New Jerseyans deserve a better voting system, as voting rights advocates argue.

"As to whether or not DREs (Direct Electronic Recording system) are scientifically reliable, the court will conduct a full hearing," Feinberg said while ruling on pretrial motions Tuesday and setting a May 19 trial date.

However, since no decision on the lawsuit is expected before September, New Jerseyans will vote electronically without a paper trail in November unless the governor or attorney general intervenes.

The Coalition for Peace Action and other plaintiffs have sued the state, trying to force a return to paper ballots that would be counted by optical scanners. They claim electronic voting machines can be hacked into and have other flaws that render vote tabulations unreliable.

"These machines are not safe to use and they shouldn't be used on Election Day," said Penny Venetis, a Rutgers Constitutional Litigation Clinic lawyer who represents the plaintiffs.

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Venetis said at least 20 states have banned touch-screen voting machines similar to those used throughout New Jersey.

She cited New Mexico as one example, saying Gov. Bill Richardson scrapped electronic voting after the machines proved unreliable. She said that state made the transition in seven months to optical scanners that count paper ballots.

Venetis won a victory in court Tuesday when Feinberg ordered that she get access to the Sequoia Voting Systems machines that clerks in six counties reported problems with during the Feb. 5 presidential primary.

The clerks discovered one- or two-vote discrepancies between the number of votes recorded on computer cartridges vs. those on the paper-tape backups.

Venetis wants computer scientists at Princeton University to test the machines, but the manufacturer previously resisted the request, threatening litigation in a letter.

On Tuesday, lawyers for the state said they didn't know whether New Jersey had a confidentiality agreement with Sequoia preventing the tests, so Feinberg ordered that the testing move ahead.

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