Making Sausage and Counting Votes
The room was too small and the table was too crowded. The ballot marking machine locked up once and had to be rebooted. The ballot scanner got tripped up by a test ballot and had to be reprogrammed. The voting machine managers from ES & S were unable to answer some questions about their equipment. They spent a fair amount of time on the phone to HQ getting things worked out.
That was the scene Monday in the office of the Iowa Secretary of State. Election Systems and Software of Omaha had come to town to get state certification of a new piece of voting equipment. It is intended to make it easier for blind voters and others to cast private ballots.
More ballots were cast in Pocahontas, Iowa in 2004 than were used to test the equipment Monday. There was NO testing of security, even though security concerns were raised.
The three official examiners were underpaid for their time and woefully underpaid (Iowa Code 52.6) for the responsibility they shouldered. They had already announced their plans to purchase the equipment they were about to review. They had an obvious interest in running trouble free elections, but not much curiosity about implications of the errors they uncovered. They could have benefitted from outside expertise (Iowa Code 52.5), but the Secretary of State had not provided them with any.
Nevertheless at the end of the six hour session, the equipment was approved. No surprise here. Just another step in the implementation of the Help America Vote Act, a disaster as bad as the 2000 Florida recount that it was supposed to address.
They say you should never watch the making of sausage or the crafting of legislation. Add the certifying of voting machines to the list. And the next time someone tells you that voting machines are “tested and tested and tested,” send that person to me.
February 1st, 2006 at 10:13 pm
Jerry, Thanks for this account, distressing though it is. Is this being covered in the Register? Maybe they will reprint your story? There should be a public outcry over this approval process. Would it help to have more of us on hand at any future testing? And to whom to we write to voice our objections?
February 2nd, 2006 at 8:55 am
Really appreciate your sharing the news, and setting the voting blog site up, sir. Will try to keep alert, using this site as a reference point. Carole asked some good questions.