FAQs

What is an Op-Scan voting machine and are they any better than our current DRE’s?

In Op-Scan voting systems, the voter marks the paper ballot by hand (or by specialized marking device for those with disabilities), then feeds it into a machine that can read and tabulate the votes. The paper ballots are durable and can be counted by hand for purposes of an audit to independently verify that the machine totals are correct. The paper ballots can also be used for recounts in close races.

Our current DRE’s offer no mechanism for the voter to verify that the person he/she selected in a given race was actually the person recorded by the machine. It is technically possible for a person to push the button for “candidate A” and have the machine register “candidate B” internally (or register no vote at all), without the voter ever realizing that is what happened.

Furthermore, OpScan voting systems are much easier to operate and less expensive to maintain, so in the long run, taxpayers will save money by adopting the OpScan technology instead of the DRE’s.

I keep hearing that we haven’t really had any major problems with elections in Maryland. Is that true?

No, it’s not at all true. There have been MANY problems with elections in MD; however, publicity has often been minimal or absent. One of the most glaring problems with the Nov. 2006 election was the inability to perform meaningful recounts in several legislative races decided by a handful of votes. This is not a partisan issue. Candidates from any party may be adversely affected. The lack of a paper record of each vote means no meaningful recounts in Maryland, period!

Perhaps even more importantly, we can never really KNOW if we have a problem with vote tabulations in MD because we have no independent audit capability. If a computer glitch or malicious code led to vote switching, loss of votes, or any other malfunction, MD voters and election officials would have no reliable way to detect that.

The current DRE’s are voter-friendly and easy to use. Why change?

Because they are poorly-designed, inadequately tested, and likely to be banned by federal regulation in the near future. A healthy democracy relies on secure, verifiable, transparent elections. DRE’s are black-boxes with secret software and a long history of vulnerabilities. They were originally purchased in haste following the 2000 election debacle in an attempt to avoid the problems encountered in Florida. Unfortunately, the technology had not been adequately tested prior to widespread deployment and now, MD and many other states are having to replace their systems in order to ensure voters true integrity in their elections.

What about all the money that has been spent on the current systems?

We are exploring options for capturing the residual value in the current touchscreen voting system that cost approximately $90 million to implement. See our 4-page research paper explaining how MD-EIC has quantified a $20-25 million residual value for our current DREs. Capturing this value will cover nearly all costs associated with purchasing optical scanners and ballot marking devices for voters with disabilities and implementing SB392/HB18.

Once the transition has been made to a verifiable optical scan voting system, there will be a 80% decline in the machinery of voting that requires maintenance, testing, storage, and administration. The state and counties will split millions of dollars in savings in election administration costs and these savings can, in turn, be used to address the structural deficit that concerns us all.

Shouldn’t we just wait a few more years until some new technological improvements are made so we don’t have to rely on paper?

We can not afford to wait. The 2008 presidential elections will be critical. Maryland must have a voter-verifiable paper record by 2008.

Furthermore, there is a fundamental flaw with the reasoning that leads us to search for ever-more sophisticated types of technology. Voting does not require high-tech solutions; it requires transparency and public participation in all facets to keep our democracy healthy. The more sophisticated the technology, the more expensive it is in general and the less transparent. In our current system, private corporations control our public elections every step of the way. Returning to a system in which a voter-verified paper ballot is the official record of the vote cast allows citizens to regain oversight of the elections process.