Another delay for N.J. electronic ballot safeguards

TRENTON - New voter-verified electronic voting machines with backup paper ballots are on the verge of being delayed yet again, this time until January 2009, making them unavailable for the presidential election in November.

Attorney General Anne Milgram said Sequoia Voting Systems, which has 10,000 machines in 19 of the state's 21 counties, informed her the machines would not be able to be fitted with the backup paper receipts in time for the June 3 deadline.

"It's frustrating for me to wait the additional six months . . . but I think what we will have come out of it is a far better machine and a far better system," Milgram said.

Milgram said Sequoia has passed a second round of testing by the New Jersey Institute of Technology but that federal testing has slowed the process. As a result, the machines aren't yet able to be retrofitted with printers that would generate receipts voters can look at to verify the machine recorded their choices correctly.

Sequoia did not return a phone call for a request to comment.

Many other states have moved away from electronic voting because of security and reliability issues. U.S. Rep. Rush Holt, D-Hopewell, who sponsoring a federal proposal to give states money to pursue alternative methods of voting, said electronic voting machines without paper verification are "too susceptible to fraud and error."

"It is not a matter of the availability of equipment or funds, because other states have made the changes to give voters verifiable, auditable voting," Holt said.

Milgram said other methods were discussed with legislative leaders, who she said felt extending the deadline was "making the best out of a bad situation."

Jennifer Sciortino, spokeswoman for Senate President Richard Codey, D-Essex, confirmed Milgram had met with Codey and Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts Jr., D-Camden, about the new voting machines about a month ago and agreed the extension was the best option.

Derek Roseman, a spokesman for the Assembly Democrats, said Roberts along with Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce, R-Morris, have sponsored a bill to extend the deadline, which he said will be acted upon "sooner rather than later" because of the upcoming legislative break that begins in mid-March.

Penny Venetis, a voting rights expert and associate director of the Constitutional Litigation Clinic at Rutgers School of Law, called the extension "pretty outrageous" and said it is "disgraceful" the state would "be beholden to Sequoia."

"Those who suffer are the voters of New Jersey, who are voting on insecure and unreliable voting machines," Venetis said.

Originally, a state law required the backup receipts by January of this year. The Legislature reluctantly extended the deadline until June 3, 2008. If the Legislature grants the extension to next January, the voter-verified ballots won't be available for the general election this November.

Assemblyman Reed Gusciora, D-Mercer, who sued the state in 2004 over updating electronic voting machines for the paper records, said, "We are back to eight years ago, where it is conceivable the winner of the election will call into question the election results."