The first-ever Bucks County Voting Integrity Forum, held at the Doylestown courthouse this summer before a crowded room of 150 visitors, including all three Bucks County Commissioners, is part education and part outreach of the newly formed Coalition for Voting Integrity watchdog group.
Opening the forum, co-chair Mary Ann Gould couldn’t resist quoting French soldier and statesman, Marquis de Lafayette: “This is the beginning of a great conversation.”
Seeking to educate and register concerns about Bucks County’s forced compliance with 2001’s Help America Vote Act, committee organizers and panelists demonstrated, joked and lectured about what changes Bucks’ citizens might encounter when voting in the future.
According to the act, the decades-old style lever machines that Bucks County uses will most likely have to be replaced in time for the 2006 primary election. Counties may apply for grant money to help defray such a large expense, but would have to forfeit any sort of grants awarded if they choose to challenge the law or not comply fully.
Most pressing to coalition panelists were fears of mandated electronic voting machines.
“The 2000 election exposed the dirty little secret that is the way we handle elections,” noted forensic computer scientist, Dr. Rebecca Mercuri, whose doctoral dissertation on potential voting problems was cited in Bush v Gore.
Noting that Pennsylvania has not yet defined which types of machines are acceptable and which are not, Teresa Hommel, a computer professional and self-appointed Election Integrity Activist, used her allotted time to campaign for any method that allows for a “paper audit trail.”
During a demonstration of mishaps that can occur while voting on electronic machines, Hommel warned the commissioners, “You are sitting ducks, if you switch. Nobody’s computers are secure, not Mastercard, not Bank of America, not CitiFinancial Group. No voter will see the ‘ballot of record,’ no election observer will be able to oversee the ‘counting of ballots.'”
Questioned by various residents, Hommel stood firm in an assertion that lever machines were the hardest to tamper with, and that while not completely perfect, optical scan machines met the paper trail requirement that many panelists were seeking.
Chairman of the Bucks County Commissioners Charles Martin rose to emphasize the county’s position on the issue. “We will seek to delay implementation of the HAVA law until July of 2006, giving time to the courts to sort out the issue.” Martin’s strong support of the presently-used lever machines was immediately agreed to by his fellow commissioners.
In recent weeks, Bucks County Chief Solicitor Thomas Profy has issued a legal opinion, noting that he believes Bucks County will have to switch to another form of state-certified voting apparatus. Yet to be decided by state and federal courts are questions of whether or not Title One funds (replacement machine funds) may be separated from Title Three funds (disability access to voting funds).
Or as Bonnie Sullivan, Chairwoman of the Hatboro Democrats put it: “Voting isn’t new. It’s just a new process, a new way of voting. The big problem is just following the dotted line.”