Americans Put Revamped Voting Technology to Test

LOS ANGELES(Reuters) – In California, cradle of the computer industry, most voterswill use paper and ink to cast ballots in the U.S. election on November4.

In contrast, voters in Brazil and India press buttons inall-electronic elections that take digital voting technology to theAmazon and Himalayas.

In the United States in 2000, a ballot fiasco in Florida delayed theresult of the presidential election by 35 days. But in Brazil in 2006,130 million votes were counted in 2.5 hours.

Such are the ironies of how the world votes. But although some mightsee low-tech voting in the hi-tech United States, experts say Americanswill find more reliable and secure voting systems in this election thanin 2000 and 2004.

"We have retired the punch card ballots, which were demonstrably abad way to vote," said Charles Stewart, head of political science atthe Massachusetts Institute of Technology and member of the Caltech/MITVoting Technology Project.

"We are just about to retire the mechanical lever machines whichwere also not a great way to vote. Voters using those two technologieswere 40 to 50 percent of the electorate in 2000."

Indeed, the punch card ballots developed in the 1960s were at theheart of the famous recount in Florida in 2000 that ended withRepublican George W. Bush narrowly defeating Democrat Al Gore.

That nightmare sparked a rush toward electronic voting machines, butmyriad technical glitches and security flaws in 2004 tarnished thattechnology’s reputation.

Some states and counties readjusted their electronic systems andthis year counties in 24 states will vote with electronic voting orlever machines. But many dumped electronic machines and went back topaper, while investing in optical scanning devices for counting ballots.

Most voters in California, for example, will ink a paper ballot anddrop it in an optical scanner, giving voters the reliability affordedby a paper trail.

"This year, paper voting has eclipsed electronic voting, and Iconsider that to be progress," said Kim Alexander, president of voteradvocacy group California Voter Foundation.

‘RABBITS’ WARREN OF SYSTEMS’

California is deemed the best prepared of the 50 U.S. states forelection system problems this year, according to a study by the BrennanCenter for Justice at New York University and voting watchdog groups.Some big electoral players like Texas, New Jersey and Virginia arejudged ill prepared.

"For sure, there is going to be a problem somewhere, there always isin a country as vast as ours, that is as complex as ours," saidLawrence Norden, who heads the Voting Technology Project at the BrennanCenter.

The closer the race, the more scrutiny there is on the votingsystem, the experts note. But current polls indicate the presidentialrace may not be a cliffhanger as Democrat Barack Obama shows a widening lead over Republican John McCain.

One of the big barriers to creating better voting systems in theUnited States is that states regulate how they vote, not the federalgovernment. And with a Congress that tends to defend states’ rights,hopes for a uniform nationwide voting system are dim.

"The rules should be the same everywhere and people should know whatto expect," said Alexander. "Instead, we have this rabbits’ warren ofsystems and procedures out there that is infinitely complex."

In Brazil, the federal Supreme Electoral Tribunal regulates votingnationwide, including the design of the electronic voting machine thatit orders through competitive bidding. The U.S. company Diebold Inc –widely criticized for its machines at home in recent years — has theBrazil contract.

Since it began electronic voting in 1996, Brazil has phased out themachines’ paper receipts and expects to implement digital and facerecognition of voters in five to 10 years. The goal is to reduce humanintervention to a minimum.

"We had a slow and fraudulent electoral process that was totallyuntrustworthy and that was the main motivation for our big investmentin this area," said Giuseppe Janino, head of technology at Brazil’sElectoral Tribunal.

Brazil lends its machines and know-how to other countries, butdoesn’t plan to export its product "Made for Brazil." The UnitedStates, Janino said, has not sought Brazil’s help.

"There are countries that use paper and people trust the process, even if it is manual and slow," said Janino.

But MIT’s Stewart said he expects more development in electronic voting in the United States despite the setbacks.

"I still think there is, at least in theory, a role for electronicvoting machines in places that have especially complicated electoralenvironments," said Stewart.

"What is unfortunate is that we have not set up a mechanism toassure broad elements of the public that those electronic machines arehonest machines."

(Editing by Ed Stoddard and David Wiessler)

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