Many Americans are worried about the accuracy of the voting process next week, a national poll finds, but election officials in most battleground states believe an influx of new voters and a high turnout will cause logistical problems — not increase the specter of fraud.
Election officials say they do not anticipate being plagued by voter fraud, overvoting (voting more than once), or the types of ballot problems that beset the presidential election in Florida four years ago.
“The higher number of voters will bring its own set of problems. Crowd control becomes an issue. There’s always an opportunity for fraud, but we’ve made efforts to minimize it,” said Kevin Kennedy, spokesman for the Wisconsin State Board of Elections.
An Associated Press poll of 1,000 U.S. adults, including registered and likely voters, found that 69 percent of Democrats and 56 percent of Republicans fear the election will be unresolved on Nov. 3. Fewer than half of Democrats and about three-fourths of Republicans say they are “very confident” the election results will be accurate.
About half of those surveyed said they expect the results will be challenged in court, like those in 2000. Lawsuits already have been filed on everything from how provisional ballots are counted to accusations of fraud in voter registration.
Election officials in Michigan, as in most states, predict a higher-than-normal turnout Tuesday, but they expect to have results shortly after the polls close.
“[W]e’re so decentralized [in terms of elections], and we have 5,300 polling places throughout the state. So even if there is an increase of 200,000 voters on Election Day, that increase will be dispersed pretty well and will be manageable,” said Kelly Chesney, spokeswoman for the Michigan Secretary of State’s Office.
In Arizona, election officials have established a “fraud line” for people to report suspicious activity and cross-check voter rolls to prevent illegal voting activity.
“We have a centralized voter-registration list, so we can cross-check county by county, so someone can’t be registered in two places,” said Arizona Secretary of State Jan Brewer.
One thing likely to help keep elections clean and accurate in Wisconsin and several other contested states will be the use of optical scans, which require running paper ballots through electronic tabulators. No computerized touch-screen voting machines will be in use.
Many view optical scans as the most fail-safe method for reliable voting.
“They’ll give us a paper trail of votes statewide,” said Mrs. Brewer, who noted that every county in Arizona will be using optical scans.
In contrast, touch-screen voting machines work without any paper or ballot receipt, leaving no tangible trail for a recount or audit after an election. Only in Nevada will there be touch-screen voting with a paper trail on Tuesday.
To help prepare for potential problems in Wisconsin, the state election board trained and certified all 8,000 inspectors, who are in charge of polling places, Mr. Kennedy said.
Unlike touch screens and optical scans, punch-card voting machines — Florida’s nemesis in 2000 — allow voters to overvote and still are used in many jurisdictions. In Ohio, 67 of the state’s 88 counties will be using punch cards.
But unlike the situation in Florida four years ago, Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell spokesman James Lee said: “We have clear standards for how punch-card votes are to be counted, and those standards are codified into law. … In Ohio, two corners of a chad must be punched out for a vote to count.”
What’s more, Mr. Lee said, “We’ve launched an aggressive voter-education campaign to instruct voters on how to correctly execute all types of ballots. And our election officials are prepared and trained. They know how many voters are registered, and they know the personnel levels required to handle them. Personnel will be ever-vigilant in looking for suspicious activity.”
Because of the debacle in 2000, the Florida Legislature decertified the use of punch-card voting machines in that state.
Jenny Nash, spokeswoman for Florida Secretary of State Glenda Hood, said: “Touch screens, which 15 of 67 Florida counties will be using, don’t allow a voter to overvote. And If you overvote on an optical scan, it will kick it out,” nullifying the vote.
Patricia di Constanza, superintendent of elections in Bergen County, N.J., said voters will be using the same Sequoia electronic-voting machines used in elections during the past decade and the county is not worried about tampering.
“We have a stand-alone system. It’s not hooked into the Internet, and results are not sent over telephone lines.”
In fact, she said, law-enforcement officials hand deliver both the cartridge and a printout of its contents to municipal and county clerks.
“Turnout will be massive. But I think we’re set up to address potential problems,” said Ramon de la Cruz, director of the New Jersey Division of Elections, who expects at least 500,000 new voters there to cast ballots Tuesday.
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