The Power of DIY? Hands-on Approach Might Help With Newer Voting Technology

[Image courtesy of laptopmag]

Mitchell, SD’s Daily Republic had a fascinating article recently about counties’ efforts to manage new M650 ballot scanners manufactured by Election Systems and Software.

While the bulk of the article describes the problems encountered associated with the M650 in South Dakota and elsewhere (including Saguache County, CO), my eye was drawn to the following section comparing the experience of Minnehaha County to those of its neighbors:

June 5 was the first election for newly elected Minnehaha County Auditor Bob Litz, but he said his county’s four M650 ballot scanners have a history of reliability.

“It’s an amazing machine,” he said, “but they’re also fussy machines, so we only want certain people working on them. The only physical problems we’ve had are from folded absentee ballots that stick together and sometimes don’t feed through the machine correctly.”

In such cases, or in cases of mismarked ballots, the M650 stops instantly, Litz said, adding, “We’ve had no issues — knock on wood.”

A major difference between Davison and Minnehaha counties is that the latter programs its M650 machines in-house.

Davison County, on the other hand, sends a blank Zip disk to Synergy Graphics of St. Cloud, Minn., to be programmed with election information. The programmed disk is then returned to the county by mail, [County Auditor Susan] Kiepke said.

I wonder, as technology becomes ever-more important in the voting process, if Minnehaha doesn’t have it right. Granted, voting machines have become more and more complex, but given the importance of that technology to elections it seems that jurisdictions are well-advised to take full ownership – not just financial, but also technical – of their ballot counters.

Of course, this is easier said than done; but any jurisdiction preparing to purchase new technology – or struggling with existing technology – should consider whether obtaining full value from their purchase includes a willingness to go “under the hood.”