Electronic Election Machine Detractors Hold Rally on the State House Steps

Matthew Hersh

In a continued attempt to establish a governmental mandate to overhaul all electronic voting machines, local legislators and activists held an election rally on the Capitol steps on Monday in Trenton.

The rally is the result of the ongoing effort by some local legislators to create legislation that would attach a paper receipt or include an internal paper roll in new electronic voting machines as a back-up for the electron-ically-tallied votes.

The State House event was also scheduled to occur prior to yesterday's New Jersey Superior Court hearing of a lawsuit filed through Rutgers Constitutional Litigation Clinic and brought about by the Princeton-based Coalition for Peace Action (CFPA).

After yesterday's two-hour hearing, Judge Feinberg indicated that she would have a decision within the week, said the Rev. Robert Moore, executive director of CFPA.

Citing past malfunctions by the machines manufactured by Sequoia Voting Systems, Diebold, and ES&S, Assemblyman Reed Gusciora (D-Princeton Borough), a plaintiff in the suit, said that the state may have overlooked certain safeguards and indicated that state legislation should be put forth to address problems with voting machines. Currently, 16 out of 21 counties in New Jersey use electronic machines, all of them manufactured by Sequoia.

As Mr. Gusciora also pointed out, the rally was held the same day that the newly-sworn-in 109th Congress certified the results of the 2004 presidential elections. Mr. Gusciora said that while he accepts the results of the election, there are measures that can be taken for more accurate vote-counting.

"It's déjà vu all over again. If we're going to make sure elections are fair and accurate, we want the votes to count," he said.

"All we're simply asking is that [the votes] be verified and it's in keeping with HAVA," he added pointing to the Help American Vote Act of 2002, a program established to help create funds to eliminate punch-card voting systems.

Mr. Gusciora likened an ideal voting situation to an ATM. After voting, a receipt of vote should be given, thus creating a paper trail to the otherwise electronically-counted vote.

"What's not fair about that?" Mr. Gusciora asked.

This next step of the lawsuit was initiated after an unsuccessful 11th-hour hearing that sought to halt the use of electronic voting machines in favor of older machines. However, at the time of that lawsuit, with only six days remaining before the presidential election, State Superior Court Judge Linda Feinberg declined to hear the case, allowing New Jersey's elections to move forward as planned.

National legislation on the voting issue is also pending, in the form of House Resolution 2239, which included Rep. Rush Holt (D-Hopewell Township) as a primary sponsor and 176 co-sponsors in the U.S. House of Representatives. Because that measure was introduced in the 108th Congress, it will have to be re-introduced in this current session.

Among those who spoke at Monday's rally were Leslie Potter, district director for Mr. Holt; Alicia Welch, second vice-president of the Trenton NAACP; Don Dileo, political and legislative director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; and Madelyn Hoffman, another plaintiff in the lawsuit.