BACKGROUND ON IOWA'S 2006 GUBERNATORIAL UNDERVOTES BY COUNTY VOTING EQUIPMENT (By Sean Flaherty at IVI)
* In the November 2006 election, Iowa had 21 counties that used only paper ballots and optical scan at the precinct. These counties served voters with disabilities with a ballot-marking device, which aids a voter in marking the same optically scanned paper ballots used by all voters. 59 counties used optical scan primarily but had one touch screen in each precinct to serve voters with disabilities. These are called “blended counties.” 19 counties used only touch screen machines at the precinct.
* The median undervote in the counties that used only paper ballots and optical scan was 0.8%. The median undervote in the counties that used mostly optical scan with a single touch screen was 1.2%, and the median undervote in counties with only touch screens at the polls was 2.7% (attached Sheet 2).
* 16 of 21 counties that used only optical scan had an undervote rate of less than 1%. No touch screen county had an undervote rate lower than 1% (Sheet 2).
* 14 of 19 touch screen counties had an undervote rate of over 2%. No county that used only optical scan had an undervote rate of higher than 2% (Sheet 2).
* Even in touch screen counties, absentee ballots are cast on paper. Only 9 touch screen counties reported their undervotes by precinct. Factoring out the absentee ballots, 8 of 9 counties had a real touch screen undervote higher than their than their already high countywide undervote (Sheet 3).
Vote totals reported on the attached spreadsheet were obtained first from the Official Results Canvassed by the Legislature, published at: http://www.sos.state.ia.us/pdfs/staff/offResultsGovLtGovLeg.pdf
When vote totals in Officials Results did not include undervote rates, the undervote was calculated using the total votes cast in the Official Results versus the 2006 General Turnout Report, published at: http://www.sos.state.ia.us/pdfs/TurnoutReport.pdf
IOWA's GUBERNATORIAL ELECTION SHOWS PAPER BALLOTS THE MOST RELIABLE VOTING METHOD
Paper Ballots Better at Registering Votes than Electronic Voting Machines
North Liberty, IA – September 13, 2007 – A review of the 2006 Iowa Governor's race showed electronic voting machines had a significantly higher undervote rate than precinct-based optical scan systems.
Touch screen voting machines record and tabulate votes in electronic memory, and optical scan voting systems tabulate paper ballots marked by the voters.
A citizen advocacy group looked at the difference between the number of voters in each Iowa county who voted in the election, and the total number of votes cast in the Governor's race.
This difference is called the “undervote.” The undervote in the election for the highest office on the ballot is used by researchers to evaluate the efficiency of voting equipment. Most voters will cast a vote for the top race, so if the undervote rate for that race tends to be higher with the use of a type of voting equipment, that equipment may not be as usable or effective as others.
In the 2006 Governor's race, Iowa counties that used precinct-based optical scan as the primary voting system had a cumulative undervote for Governor of 0.9%, and counties that used touch screen electronic voting machines as the primary voting system had a cumulative undervote of 2.4%.
“Paper ballots did much better than touch screens” in their undervote rates, said Sean Flaherty, co-chair of Iowans for Voting Integrity.
The vote trend among Iowa counties was consistent. “Even when we broke it down by smaller counties and larger counties, and by median, paper-ballot counties just tended to do better,” Flaherty said. “This is important, because small diffferences in undervote rates can make a big difference in tight elections. What if we have another very close Presidential election next year?”
Computer scientists have also revealed severe security vulnerabilities in current touch screen machines. California's Secretary of State has decided to severely restrict the use of most touch screens following a top-to-bottom review of voting system security. Last year, University of Iowa computer scientist Douglas Jones and two other computer experts wrote of the security of the Diebold touch screen voting machine used in 71 Iowa counties, “we never imagined Diebold to be as irresponsible and incompetent as they have turned out to be.”
Optically scan systems are superior to touch screens because paper ballots are also inherently voter-verified, while the electronic machine's paper trail may go unchecked by too many voters, Flaherty said. Paper ballots are also not subject to printer jams, and are much easier to count by hand.
Under legislation signed by Governor Culver this year, Iowa joined Florida and Maryland in deciding to move away this year from touch screens and toward a statewide optical scan system. Currently, 16 entire states use only paper ballots in their elections.
“Last year's undervote rate is yet another finding that shows that the Governor and the Assembly were wise to move us toward optical scan,” Flaherty said.