[openvotingSTL] Fwd: Santa Fe Reporter: "Can New Mexico Run a Successful Election?" Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2008 00:25:26 -0600 (CST) Theron Horton wrote: Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2008 11:13:12 -0600 http://sfreporter.com/articles/publish/cover-030508-ballot-booth- woes.php THIS WEEK : NEWS Last Updated: March 5, 2008 - 10:06 AM Ballot Booth Woes By Laura Paskus Published: March 5, 2008 Can New Mexico Run a Successful Election? With rows and rows of ballot boxes behind her, and optical scan machines to her right, Bernalillo County Clerk Maggie Toulouse-Oliver welcomes the mostly familiar faces in front of her. o?< Cover illustration by Brian Stauffer. Cover design by Angela Moore. Toulouse-Oliver is here on a recent Wednesday night at the Bernalillo County Complexbs voting machine warehouse to discuss a study the county is embarking upon with her former professor Lonna Atkeson, a political science professor at the University of New Mexico. Atkeson and county officials are performing a random post-election audit of the 2006 election results in Bernalillo County. They hope the study will allow them to better understand the difference between machine-tallied and hand-counted votesband to assess the accuracy of the election process itself. bWe want to develop a smart protocol,b Toulouse-Oliver says, bso we can work to ensure integrity and voter confidence in the system.b Itbs safe to say voter confidence in New Mexicobs elections has been shaken. Although state officials, including Gov. Bill Richardson, have distanced themselves from the debacle of the Feb. 5 Democratic Party- run presidential caucus, that contest wasnbt the first in which New Mexicobs voting process fell short. In 2006, officials announced two weeks after Election Day that incumbent US Rep. Heather Wilson, R-NM, had defeated Patricia Madrid by less than 900 votes in the 1st Congressional District. In 2004, New Mexico officials certified statewide results two weeks after the election in which Bush narrowly beat US Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. That same year, some votersb ballots were disqualified when polling places in at least five counties and on the Navajo and Laguna reservations ran out of either provisional ballots or the envelopes in which to place them. And in 2000, New Mexico didnbt announce Al Gore had defeated Bush by 366 votes until three weeks after Election Day. Undoubtedly, 2008 promises to be a historic year for New Mexico. In addition to the presidential election, voters will cast ballots for three congressional seats, a US Senate seat and all 112 state legislative positions. Yet many questions remain about the state of New Mexicobs election processbboth about the private company that maintains New Mexicobs voting machines and databases, as well as the ability of election officials to anticipate glitches and troubleshoot unexpected problems. Concerns about the latter were heightened this week after Gov. Bill Richardson vetoed a bill to shift the financial responsibility for maintaining voting machines from counties to the state. Currently, the Democratic Party is still investigating the voter rolls used for the Feb. 5 contest, and an election summit is planned for next month. Part of the increased interest is a reflection of how high the stakes are. Atkeson says while there has always been some level of error within the American election system, due to the sheer number of ballots cast in presidential elections, itbs a different story when the elections are close. bWhen youbre in New Mexico and the difference between George Bush and John Kerry is about 6,000 votesb then suddenly, you want to know that everything is operating as it should be,b she says. And when election margins are that slim, she says, votes systematically missed or added can change the outcome of an election. There are efforts across the nation, she says, to boost public confidence through the creation of tighter election processesbvia audits, the creation of clear chains of custody and the opening of the process to greater transparency. Those efforts to maintain the credibility of a democratic system of government, Atkeson says, are crucial. bFrom my perspective as a small-d democratbsomeone who believes in democracybit seems to me you want a process that enhances voter confidence,b she says. bBecause if we donbt have those conditions in our election, then whatever the government does is fraudulent.b New Mexico isnbt the only state to have election woes. bIn 2000, the elections were a fiasco in the United States,b New Mexicobs former Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron says. bFloridabI say the F-word, I hate to say the F-wordbreally messed up what happened in the selection of the president in 2000.b After that, she says, Congress was intent on looking at how elections needed to be changed nationwide. As a member of the National Association of Secretaries of Statebs task force, Vigil-Giron made recommendations that were later adopted into the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA). That law sent states federal funds to replace their punchcard voting systems (remember those hanging chads?), create statewide voter files and bestablish minimum election administration standardsb for state and local governments. Beginning in 2003, Vigil-Giron oversaw the creation and implementation of that plan in New Mexico. The plan had six main goals, including voter education and training for election officials and poll workers. It also addressed technology by requiring states to create a computerized statewide voter registration file to replace older bdirect recording electronic voting systems,b such as touch-screen machines, and to provide election machines for non-English speakers and those with disabilities. o?< o?< Between 1998 and June 2006, there were documented failures of ES&S voting machines in jurisdictions within all of the states colored in blue, and also in the country of Venezuela, according to VotersUnite.org. At that time, Vigil-Giron says, New Mexicobs 33 counties used five different systems. The statebs task was to remove the electronic voting machinesbwhich lacked a paper trailband make sure precincts throughout the state were using a uniform voting system. Vigil-Giron, a Democrat who is currently running for the 1st Congressional District seat, recalls meeting with Gov. Bill Richardson in 2005. bI sat down with him and he looked at me [and said], bHow can we make New Mexico an all-paper-ballot state?bb she says. bAnd I told the governor: bGive me the money. I can do anything as long as you give me the money.bb The selection committee charged with selecting a vendor, she says, chose the only company able to provide machines that complied with the statebs election code. That company was Election Systems and Software. In 2006, the state paid ES&S more than $18 million for 1,900 M100 paper ballot tabulators and 1,580 AutoMARK voting systems. (Ballots hand-marked by voters are fed into the M100 optical scanners, which then tally the votes. AutoMARK machines are specially designed to allow disabled or non-English speaking voters to cast ballots without assistance, a requirement of HAVA.) HAVA was a boon for ES&S: According to the companybs Web site, after HAVA became law, ES&S contracted with 1,700 jurisdictions in 43 states in the United Statesbbcarrying out the greatest transformation in the way elections are run since the Voting Rights Act of the 1960s.b o?< In the mid-1980s, New Mexico began transitioning away from lever voting machines to direct recording electronic voting machines and optical scanners; New Mexicans first used touch-screen voting machines in the 2002 election. Indeed, during the November 2006 election, nearly 67 million voters cast their ballots with ES&S machines. But last fall, California and the City of San Francisco sued the company after investigations revealed ES&S had sold untested and uncertified voting machines. And in December, the Ohio Secretary of Statebs Office released a report revealing ES&S machinesb security failures. (Federal law requires certification of the voting machine system by the company before it sells its equipment. State law requires individual machines be certified by counties prior to elections.) In Colorado, the Secretary of Statebs Testing Board, outside auditors and the Colorado Office of Cyber Security worked together to test the voting machine system ES&S sold to the state. In December, after finding that the machines sold to Coloradoband used in the 2004 and 2006 electionsbfailed certification, Coloradobs Republican Secretary of State Mark Coffman decertified all of the statebs ES&S electronic voting systems. o?< Rebecca Vigil-Giron served twice as SOS: From 1986 to 1990 and then from 1998 to 2006. Between those separate terms, she worked for the International Foundation for Electoral Systems in Nicaragua, Equatorial Guinea and the Dominican Republic. Two months later, in mid-February, California Secretary of State Debra Bowen released the results of its technology assessmentba damning document revealing critical security, code and data integrity problems with ES&Sbs Unity software. The investigations, according to the report, braise serious concerns about the assurance level of claimed security features of the Unity system.b In fact, according to the nonprofit VotersUnite.org, between 1998 and June 2006, there were documented failures of ES&S voting machines in jurisdictions within Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming and in the country of Venezuela. ES&S spokeswoman Jill Freidman-Wilson defends the system, noting: bIn the case of the M100, the system has been deployed for years across the country, in thousands of elections across the country, [including] millions of ballots. She continues: bNever, never has there been an instance of a security break.b She adds that the machine has a proven track record among its users and it is a system that is baccurate, reliable and secure.b New Mexico Secretary of State Mary Herrera isnbt worried about the machines or the software, according to her spokesman James Flores, although he also points out that ES&S contracts were signed prior to her administration. Herrera was repeatedly unavailable for comment, but Flores reiterated her officebs confidence in the system. bI have answered that same question several times, and that is: We are very confident with the system that is in place right now, with ES&S, and we look forward to the primary and general election,b he says. bWe are very confident that itbs going to run smoothly, and we are going to do the best that we canbas we always do.b But some activists say the state is doing a disservice to voters by ignoring the security concerns raised in other states. Democratic Party activist Gideon Elliot points to the 700 tests performed in Colorado. bThis was not small stuff,b he says, citing programming errors that could result in votes either miscounted or not counted. bAnd the question that they raised was that they werenbt even sure the [systems] had ever been federally certified.b New Mexico bought the same machines from the same vendor, he says. bWe might have even bought equipment that was not federally certified, which would mean ES&S defrauded the state,b he adds. Activists arenbt the only ones wondering about the companybs contract with New Mexico. State Rep. Dan Foley, R-Roswell, has repeatedly introduced legislation calling for an investigation of the statebs voting machine contracts, which he says have left counties not only footing maintenance bills, but also wondering if their machines will work come Election Day. Noting that the state and counties have already paid more than $1 million in maintenance fees to ES&S, Foley wants to learn why counties must continue to pay additional costs when their machines malfunction. (County clerks also have pointed out that the company will not train state or county technicians to repair the machines, preferring instead to send their own technicians.) bWe apparently signed this contract that has all this maintenance stuff involved that seems to be like buying a used car,b Foley says. bAnd everything but your problem is covered by the maintenance agreement.b Foleybs bill did not make it out of the House Voters and Election Committee. According to Committee Chairman Rep. Jose Campos, D-Santa Rosa, that bill duplicates a system already in place, by which the Attorney Generalbs Office investigates any criminal activity. (A spokesman o?< To learn more about the Help America Vote Act, visit the US Election Commission Web site at www.eac.gov. To report fraud, waste or abuse involving the EAC or HAVA, call the US Office of the Inspector General hotline at 866-552-0004. with the state Attorney Generalbs Office would neither confirm nor deny if there are pending investigations involving ES&S.) However, Campos says he does see major problems with ES&S. This legislative session, Rep. W Ken Martinez, D-Grants, introduced a bill that would pay ES&S another $176,000 for maintenance of the statebs campaign records database. Candidates report donations to their campaigns, as well as their expenditures, to the SOS office. That information, submitted electronically, can then be viewed by the public. Or not. bWhat happens is ES&Sbs software has been having problems with us being able to download it, and then, when itbs entered in, there are problems with the software,b Campos says. bThe other problem is if you, as a news reporter, wanted to see my campaign donations and how Ibm spending my money, they have been having problems also on accessing that information.b o?< ES&S was established in 1999 when American Information System bought Business Records Corporation. The companybs owners include the Omaha World Herald and the McCarthy Group, an Omaha-based investment group. Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb, resigned as president of the McCarthy Group and as chairman of the board of AIS after winning election to the US Senate in 1996. The extra appropriations should address that problem, but not right away: bES&S is fixing some of the problems, but not the whole program,b he says, adding that while the software problems wonbt be resolved by the primary, bthey should be ready by the general election.b Campos adds that he has shared his concerns with Herrera, asking her office to be bmore frugal and more tenacious on ES&S to properly maintain their own software.b Meanwhile, in Chaves County, County Clerk Rhoda Coakley says three of her 63 voting machines are out of service. bTwo from the general [election] and one recently that malfunctioned,b she says. bNo one has ever called us back about it. The other two, they picked them up last May, but I havenbt heard any word on them.b Shebs also livid regarding a $64,000 maintenance bill from ES&S. bIbm over 120 days late,b she says. bThey reduced it to $32,605, which Ibm still not going to pay.b This bill, she explains, came in addition to the yearly maintenance fee the county is required to pay under the terms of the statebs contract. (A House bill that would have shifted the financial burden of voting machine maintenance from counties to the state was vetoed by the governor this week.) But ES&S doesnbt just supply and service the statebs voting machines. It also has a hand in its voter registration list. ES&S has maintained the statebs voter registration list since 2000. Now, that voter registration list is on the hot seat as the Democratic Party struggles to explain why the names of so many registered voters were missing during the Feb. 5 caucus. Under HAVA, when onebs voter eligibility is questionable, the voter is given a bprovisional ballot.b After all the other ballots have been counted, officials verify provisional ballots. Once the voterbs eligibility is verified and the ballot qualified, that vote is added to the tally. The holdup in announcing the close caucus contest between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton was due to the 17,276 provisional ballots cast. That number represents approximately 10 percent of the total votes cast. It took Party officials and volunteers nine days to verify those ballots and, of those 17,276 votes, a total of 8,200balmost halfb were registered Democrats. Democratic Party Chairman Brian ColC3n confirms to SFR the list originated with the SOSbs office, but will not discuss the list further, citing a pending investigation. bWebre still evaluating the lists,b he says. But he insists Democrats should not worry their names might be left off lists in the future: Twenty percent of the provisional ballots were cast by voters who were not registered as Democrats, he says. According to SOS spokesman James Flores, his office sent Democrats a complete list, and he dismisses what he calls bconspiraciesb about ES&S having access to the voter list. County clerks enter voter information into a centralized database that is also accessible by the SOSbs office, he says, calling that database the bhub.b ES&S, says Flores, only maintains the system. He adds that the company does not have access to the information, cannot change voter information and does not enter information into the database. bA good analogy is like a car: The hub of information is a vehicle. ES&S changes the oil and the tiresbthey maintain itbbut they have nothing to do with driving the vehicle,b he says. ES&S spokeswoman Jill Friedman-Wilson concurs, noting: bWhat ES&S does not do, in any way, is have responsibility for the data in the database.b Under the terms of the original contractbwhich included $195,000 for the system software and a $29,250 annual maintenance fee, among other costsbES&S agrees to provide the software, maintain the central system and perform bcustomization/upgrade/modification/supportb services at additional costs. Not everyone is sold. In 2006, Democratic Party activist Gideon Elliot, at the time a volunteer for the nonprofit NM Vote, tried to obtain a voter file of all registered voters in New Mexico. Elliot told SFR in January that the lists given to him by the SOSbs office were incomplete; that is, they did not include voters who were known to be registered. (Although the original contract for the voter registration system was signed in 2000 by Vigil-Giron, Herrerabs office plans to renew the contract, which expired in early January, with a new, no-bid contract.) Election watchdogs worry that glitches in the database will continue to cause problems in the June primary and November general election. bThe Secretary of State needs to reach out now to county clerks, and make sure webve got this database right,b Patricia Leahan, director of the Las Vegas Peace and Justice Center, says. bAnd citizens need to keep asking questions.b According to ColC3n, there will be a summit in Albuquerque on April 25 during which party officials, elected leaders, constituent groups and the public will learn more about what went wrong with the Feb. 5 caucus and how to improve things for the next one. o?