Voting machines can be checked by the public


By Tom Baldwin • GANNETT STATE BUREAU • June 21, 2008



TRENTON — A state Superior Court judge Friday pulled long-feuding parties together in a pact that allows the public to view and check the veracity of electronic voting machines lacking a receipt or paper trail.

"I think this is right," said Judge Linda Feinberg as she waived her proposed pact in front of the attorneys for the two sides. She sternly added later, "If anybody violates this protective order, there are going to be serious consequences."


"This," said plaintiff's attorney Penny Venetis, "is the first time a court has ordered the public can check a voting machine."

"I am enormously happy," said Irene Goldman, chairwoman of the group that sued for access to the machines, the Princeton-based Coalition for Peace Action.

Deputy Attorney General Leslie Gore, arguing for the state, which was the defendant, said, "The order is fair and reasonable, and we are confident that everyone is going to abide by the order."

The multi-dimensional issue turned partly on crafting an agreement that gives the New Jersey public a sense of whether their voting machines — in this case, the ones made by Sequoia Voting Systems Inc. — even work.

"The public in New Jersey does not own the elections," said Goldman. "They are owned by Sequoia."

Such sentiment had to be balanced against the proprietary business rights of the Sequoia to keep secret whatever engineering or circuitry they developed and own.

Company vice president Michelle Shafer said "Sequoia has no qualms" with the ruling, except for Feinberg's stance on "derivative works" — adaptations of an existing product for a different purpose.

"This voting equipment examination is supposed to be focused on how the machines currently operate, not on how they could operate if they are tinkered with and loaded with rogue software in an attempt to simulate a chess game on a machine, for example," Shafer said.

Another issue, beyond allowing the machines to be verified, was whether the results of that testing can be made public. Feinberg's ruling agreed they could, albeit by way of a process lasting 90 days.

That will likely involve a titanic battle of the college professors, as the Coalition for Peace Action recruits an expert from Princeton University and the state taps an expert from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh to check the machines.

The machines are called DREs, short for "direct recording electronic" devices. They have raised concerns because not all are equipped to produce a paper trail that voters can use to confirm their vote or that election officials can examine to OK results.

The machines will be tested under great secrecy at New Jersey State Police headquarters in West Trenton.

The case began 2004, challenging the use of the machines.

There are some 10,000 Sequoia machines in New Jersey, a state that employs four different kinds of voting machines in the various counties.

They hit the headlines in February, on the Super Tuesday presidential primary, when clerks saw obvious discrepancies.
Tom Baldwin: tbaldwi@gannett.com





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