Californians will cast their ballots in Tuesday’s elections in accordance with new regulations made to voting procedures last year, although there is uncertainty over the efficiency of these changes.
These changes, made by California Secretary of State Debra Bowen, have required multiple counties that had been using electronic voting systems to revert to paper ballots, said Henry Brady, a professor of political science and public policy at UC Berkeley.
The most commonly used system of paper ballots is the central optical scan system, Brady said.
In this method of casting ballots, voters mark choices on a Scantron in a process similar to taking a standardized test, Brady added.
Brady said the ballots are then taken to a central location where they are inserted into an optical scan machine that tabulates the votes.
Electronic voting systems, however, digitalize the entire voting process, including how votes are recorded, Brady said.
The majority of electronic voting machines that were used prior to the new regulations were touch-screen direct recording electronic machines, Brady added.
Brady also said touch-screen electronic voting machines are more accurate than paper ballots because they indicate when a vote has been cast and allow voters to verify their choices.
But following an independent University of California report aimed at testing the security of different types of voting procedures, Bowen decertified the majority of direct recording electronic machines, said David Wagner, a professor of computer science at UC Berkeley who also worked on the report.
The report concluded that electronic machines are susceptible to the types of viruses and security breaches characteristic of any computer system, Wagner said.
Wagner also said as a result of these threats, although the process is not intrinsically flawed, electronic voting with current machines is more difficult to audit in order to ensure that votes have been recorded accurately.
Brady said that the optical scan system may be prone to an equal amount of error because the machine cannot read marks which are recorded too lightly and may mistake stray marks as votes cast.
“People can hack (electronic voting) machines and change votes. In principle, that’s possible but in principle, people can also throw paper ballots into a river,” Brady said.
Each precinct will still, however, be required to have one direct recording electronic machine available for those who are not able to use a paper ballot and may require the machine for accessibility features.
Wagner said one benefit of electronic voting is that it accounts for individuals who are blind or speak languages other than English.
Bowen, despite having decertified the majority of electronic voting machines, did approve of one particular type of direct recording electronic machine, the Hart Intercivic, Brady said.
Brady said, though, that this machine is the least reliable of electronic voting machines and is very susceptible to inaccuracy because it has a cursor instead of a touch screen, which many voters are not comfortable using, thereby increasing the likelihood of a voter making an error.
“I don’t think we have improved voting system with some of Debra Bowen’s actions. … I fear she’s made the system worse and not better,” Brady said.
Matt Mordles, a spokesman for the registrar of voters in Santa Clara County, which had multiple electronic voting machines, said that both paper and electronic voting systems met the same level of transparency and audit ability in previous elections.
“We’ve never had a problem with the electronic voting system,” Mordles said.
Wagner said Bowen’s regulations have also been controversial for other reasons, particularly in light of the money spent purchasing electronic machines that can no longer be used.
Another concern with Bowen’s regulations is how much time it will take to count the votes, Wagner said.
“We’re making plans to go pretty much all through the night,” Mordles said.
But in an effort to increase the efficiency of the paper ballot system, Mordles said the registrar has tried to increase the number of voters who vote by mail.
Mordles explained this will allow the registrar to receive ballots before Feb. 5 and thus have a greater percentage of results sooner.