Posted on 12/09/2005 5:52:29 AM PST by Puppage
(Hartford-WTNH, Dec. 8, 2005 6:21 PM) _ Is the state about to make a voting machine blunder? Several college professors say the choice for new voting machines is a mistake.
Under orders from the federal government, the state must replace all 3,300 of those mechanical lever voting machines by the next election. The decision on the new high-tech machines must be made this month, but there was a call Thursday to put on the brakes.
Hundreds of citizens got a chance to try out the finalists. All three of the test models are touch screen or direct recording electronics.
"There's serious, serious issues with reliability and integrity for these types of systems," says Prof. Ralph Morelli, Trinity College.
A group called True Vote Connecticut, which includes a computer science professor from Yale and Trinity, called the process flawed. They claim the machines under consideration will not meet the specifications needed to address all voters.
"These printers are not accessible to the disabled," says Dr. Michael Fischer, Yale University. "A blind voter cannot read what's on that little cash register receipt that's behind the glass."
They say optical scanning voting machines are better and more reliable and should have been included in the test. They said machines made by a company called Automark were best.
"We believe that approximately eighty percent of those voting in next year's election will be voting on optical scanning devices, which the public did not have a chance to see and evaluate during those demonstrations."
Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz says towns will have the option of choosing optical scanning devices, just not the ones made by Automark because they chose not to bid.
"Automark made the business decision in December of last year, not to apply," Bysiewicz said.
She also says that the machines she tested do have the ability to speak back and confirm the votes of blind voters through earphones. "All of them have audio capability to make the technology accessible."
The professors say that the optical scanning machines are less likely to fail.
"They are professors in with computer science or engineering background but they are not experts in voting technology," Bysiewicz says.
In addition to implying that the professors were out of their element, Bysiewicz says this challenge may also be politically motivated. The president of the registrars association, Richard Abbate, who is also Republican registrar in Cheshire, is considering running against her in next year's election.
Huh, I wonder just who these "citizens" were. I can just imagine.
It's difficult enough to vote as a conservative in Connecticut - regardless of the method used.
Just think of the furor that would erupt if the new machines were able to detect illegals or non-registered serial sex offenders, or... conservatives...hmm, they could do that...
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