Holt pushes bill for paper trail to verify voting
Published November 16th, 2006 in Star LedgerBy: Donna De La Cruz
Holt said the inaccuracy of electronic touch-screen voting machines "poses a direct threat to the integrity of our electoral system." The New Jersey congressman ar gued that the Florida district, in which more than 18,000 votes may have gone uncounted, has exposed the system's flaws.
In Florida's 13th Congressional District, touch-screen voting machines in Sarasota County recorded that 18,382 people -- 13 percent of voters in the Nov. 7 election -- did not vote for either Republican Vern Buchanan or Democrat Christine Jennings, despite casting ballots in other races on the ballot. That rate was much higher than in the four other counties in the district.
The Florida Department of State reported Monday that Buchanan had a 377-vote lead over Jennings in the race -- less than 0.2 percent. The Associated Press' unofficial election night count had the total at 373. Buchanan has declared victory; Jennings has not conceded. The race is one of a handful of House races across the nation that remain unresolved more than a week after Election Day.
Holt said yesterday that even after the votes are recounted and a winner declared, the absence of a voter-verified paper trail will fuel doubts about the results.
He also noted a discrepancy in New Jersey, where Ocean County election officials say software glitches apparently caused votes to be counted twice in Barnegat and, in some cases, transferred to Lakewood.
Holt's Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act would re quire that all voting systems produce a voter-verified paper record for use in manual audits, ban the use of undisclosed software and all wireless and concealed communications devices in voting systems and establish procedures to be followed if there is a discrepancy between reported results and audit results.
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