No grounds to trust touch-screen voting

Editorial, Baltimore Sun
January 12, 2004

Put simply, there is no scientific or factual basis for the assurances of Gilles W. Burger, chairman of the Maryland State Board of Elections, to Maryland's voters that our voting system is the most accurate ("How safe is your vote?" Opinion Commentary, Jan. 7).

And despite his blind faith in the expensive and soon-to-be outdated Diebold Election Systems machines, voters will not be able to verify that any of their votes have been recorded accurately or whether they have been recorded at all.

Why should voters expect Maryland's electronic voting system to operate flawlessly when no other electronic system in existence can make this claim? Software and hardware glitches are inherent to any computer system.

Mr. Burger also erroneously claims that the multiple recording functions of Maryland's machines enable an electronic audit. This is analogous to a company making two sets of records of its financial transactions and then claiming you can perform an audit by comparing the two sets.

Mr. Burger has no way of guaranteeing that the internally recorded ballot matches the image that the voter sees on the screen.

Consequently, no viable independent audit or recount can occur with our present system unless a voter-verified paper ballot is added.

Robert Ferraro, Burtonsville

© 2004 Baltimore Sun