Faulkner County's Elections Systems and Software (ES&S) electronic voting machines would better serve the voters if they were tossed "into the nearest body of water," Lisa Burks, founder and national coordinator of the National Coalition for Verified Voting, said at a "town hall" style meeting Thursday night at the Faulkner County Library.
Citing numerous cases of electronic voting machine problems in Arkansas and nationwide, including the error that caused a result flip-flop in May 20's state District 45 House of Representatives Democratic preferential primary, Burks, a Conway resident, said the county would be better off going back to paper ballots and lever style voting machines.
Several in attendance, including former District 45 Rep. Betty Pickett, argued that paper ballots are no longer an option, as the lever style machines are now redundant and parts are no longer available.
Several others also recounted tales of paper ballot elections being decided by unscrupulous characters in courthouse basements, saying paper ballots were no more reliable or tamper-proof than modern touch-screen machines when commonly used and would remain so if used again.
Bruce Haggard, recently resigned Faulkner County Election Commission chairman, said after the May recount the machines do provide adequate reliability and redundancies to ensure an honest vote. Haggard did stop short of praising the machines, however, complaining that the almost-$4,000 machines lack the user-friendliness of common, less-expensive electronic devices and software.
The error in the May 20 election was found through a recent ES&S audit to be caused by human error when the votes were tabulated on a separate computer, not through an error within the machine or its associated recording devices.
Volunteer poll worker David Henze argued that human error, not machine defects, was the root cause of Faulkner County's recent election woes, to which Burks responded that whatever the source of the error, an election using the machines resulted in an error rate many times higher than the legally acceptable rate as outlined in the Help America Vote Act.
"Just because it's human error does not make it exempt from the standards," she said, also saying that replacement parts for lever-style machines are still available.
Other electronic voting machine problems Burks told those in attendance that she and other election integrity activists have identified include a vulnerability to computer viruses/"hackers," instances of non-counted, mis-counted or duplicate votes, insufficient computer memory to record accurately in a high-turnout election and general electronic and mechanical reliability that can be dubious at best.
Dr. Terry Fiddler, who was believed to have won the District 45 primary until a recount ordered by opponent Linda Tyler showed Tyler to be the winner, was present at the "town hall" meeting, though he kept quiet during a question-and-answer session.
Fiddler said after the meeting that though very concerned about future elections held in Faulkner County, he feared any opinion expressed would be interpreted as "sour grapes."
He did say he believes himself to be a "poster child" for election shortcomings.
(Staff writer Joe Lamb can be reached by e-mail at joe.lamb@thecabin.net or by phone at 505-1238. Send us your news at www.thecabin.net/submit)
