N.J. voting machine fix put off once again

December 13, 2008

By Elise Young
NorthJersey.com
December 9, 2008

TRENTON — New Jerseyans would have to wait nearly two more years for retrofitted voting machines under a bill approved Monday by an Assembly committee.

The legislation would roll back the Jan. 1 deadline to alter 10,000 machines with printers so voters could verify that their ballots were recorded correctly. It also would allow local tests of those machines, plus trials of optical-scanning technology used elsewhere in the country.
"Let the consumers really test what works," the bill's sponsor, Assemblywoman Joan Quigley, testified before the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

If passed by the full Legislature and signed by Governor Corzine, the bill would lead to the third deadline extension for the project. The new deadline would be November 2010, well beyond next year's gubernatorial election.

"The image of Keystone Kops comes to mind," Nick Lento, an activist from Cliffside Park, told the panel. "You can't keep on doing this. This is wrong."

The retrofit issue was forced four years ago by voting-rights activists who sued the state, claiming that the equipment was defective and unreliable. The manufacturer, Sequoia Voting Systems, disputed their claims, but agreed to add printers and make other alterations.

Tests of the altered machines by New Jersey Institute of Technology computer scientists found jamming and other problems with the printers, and experts are working on those fixes.

More recently, Princeton University scientists demonstrated that the machines' software was vulnerable to tampering. But the manufacturer and New Jersey voting officials disputed the Princeton team's findings and stood behind the equipment, which was used for the Nov. 4 election.

TRENTON — New Jerseyans would have to wait nearly two more years for retrofitted voting machines under a bill approved Monday by an Assembly committee.

The legislation would roll back the Jan. 1 deadline to alter 10,000 machines with printers so voters could verify that their ballots were recorded correctly. It also would allow local tests of those machines, plus trials of optical-scanning technology used elsewhere in the country.

"Let the consumers really test what works," the bill's sponsor, Assemblywoman Joan Quigley, testified before the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

If passed by the full Legislature and signed by Governor Corzine, the bill would lead to the third deadline extension for the project. The new deadline would be November 2010, well beyond next year's gubernatorial election.

"The image of Keystone Kops comes to mind," Nick Lento, an activist from Cliffside Park, told the panel. "You can't keep on doing this. This is wrong."

The retrofit issue was forced four years ago by voting-rights activists who sued the state, claiming that the equipment was defective and unreliable. The manufacturer, Sequoia Voting Systems, disputed their claims, but agreed to add printers and make other alterations.

Tests of the altered machines by New Jersey Institute of Technology computer scientists found jamming and other problems with the printers, and experts are working on those fixes.

More recently, Princeton University scientists demonstrated that the machines' software was vulnerable to tampering. But the manufacturer and New Jersey voting officials disputed the Princeton team's findings and stood behind the equipment, which was used for the Nov. 4 election.

Source: NorthJersey.com