Liên hệ:

Christy Setzer, New Heights Communications, christy@newheightscommunications.com, (202) 724-6380

Mary Boyle, Nguyên nhân chung, mboyle@commoncause.org, (202) 736-5770

Report says there’s still time to make needed changes by Nov. 6

WASHINGTON – Facing what may be the most fiercely-contested election in its history, Florida could again find itself -under scrutiny over shortcomings in its election practices, a new, national voting study suggests.

The report, “Counting Votes 2012: A State by State Look at Voting Technology Preparedness,” says that state officials have substantially upgraded voting practices since the “hanging chad” disputes that followed the 2000 election. But it warns that Florida does not keep adequate paper records of individual votes, limiting the ability of officials to verify the accuracy of electronic counts, and needs a more robust audit requirement. The report also criticizes the state’s decision to accept votes cast online from military and overseas voters, citing concerns about the vulnerability of online systems.

“High-profile elections in the past decade have been decided by razor thin margins,” the report notes. “The 2000 presidential race was decided by 537 votes in Florida; the Washington State gubernatorial race in 2004 by 129 votes, and a Minnesota Senate race in 2008 by just 312. Every national election since 2000 has seen voting system failures stem from machines that won’t start, memory cards that can’t be read, mis-tallied votes, lost votes and more. Under the U.S. Constitution and every state constitution, as well as by statute throughout the country, every vote must be counted as cast.”

The report emphasizes that state election officials still have time before the election to make changes that would protect the integrity of the vote. The study was released Wednesday by three non-partisan organizations focused on voting – the Verified Voting Foundation, the Rutgers Law School Constitutional Litigation Clinic, and Common Cause.

“Florida has demonstrated the value of moving to an auditable system and conducting audits just this year – finding errors even though its audit provision is weak. But there’s still more that can be done to improve its efforts to prepare for the upcoming election,” said Pamela Smith, president of Verified Voting. “No election system is perfect, and ensuring fair, accurate elections is a national effort. Our elections are complex – we have so many jurisdictions and varying technologies. Everyone from election officials to citizens should be involved to make sure this process at the very heart of our democracy is healthy.”

The report notes that voting systems routinely fail. In 2008 – the last presidential election year – more than 1,800 problems were reported nationally.

“If history is any indication, machines this November will fail in the U.S. and votes will be lost,” said Susannah Goodman of Common Cause. “Backup systems like paper ballots need to be put in place in every state to help to verify results.”

The report rates Florida as “generally good” in comparing its voting and vote-counting practices to those of other states and examining its performance in each of five areas:

Does the state require paper ballots or records of every vote cast? (When computer failures or human errors cause machine miscounts, election officials can use the original ballots to determine correct totals. Additionally, paper ballots can be used to audit machine counts.)

Liệu tiểu bang có kế hoạch dự phòng đầy đủ tại mỗi điểm bỏ phiếu trong trường hợp máy móc bị hỏng không?

Liệu nhà nước có bảo vệ cử tri quân đội và ở nước ngoài cũng như lá phiếu của họ khỏi bị thay đổi, thao túng và vi phạm quyền riêng tư bằng cách đảm bảo rằng các lá phiếu đã đánh dấu không được bỏ trực tuyến không?

Liệu nhà nước có tiến hành kiểm toán sau bầu cử để xác định xem kết quả báo cáo điện tử có chính xác hay không?

Liệu tiểu bang có sử dụng các biện pháp đối chiếu và kiểm phiếu chặt chẽ để đảm bảo không có lá phiếu nào bị mất hoặc bị thêm vào khi kiểm phiếu và tổng hợp từ cấp địa phương lên cấp tiểu bang hay không?

The highest rated states overall were Minnesota, New Hampshire, Ohio, Vermont and Wisconsin, while South Carolina, Colorado, Delaware, Kansas, Louisiana and Mississippi — were ranked near the bottom.

“No vote should be lost in 2012,” said Penny Venetis, co-director of the Rutgers Law School Constitutional Litigation Clinic. “Technology exists to verify votes, and procedures could be in place around the country to make sure that every vote is counted as cast, just like the constitution requires.”

Click here to view the whole report.

Click here to view the executive summary.

Click here to view a chart of all the states’ overall assessments.