Office of Legislative Audits Department of Legislative Services 1Presentation to NSAA Primary Election Failures Safeguarding the Public Trust Special Project Presentation to National State Auditors Association Bruce Myers June 15, 2007

Office of Legislative Audits Department of Legislative Services 2Presentation to NSAA Primary Election Debacle September 12, 2007 primary was 1 st statewide all-electronic election (poll books and voting machines) September 12, 2007 primary was 1 st statewide all-electronic election (poll books and voting machines) Initial reports of major glitches in two of the most populous subdivisions Initial reports of major glitches in two of the most populous subdivisions Finger pointing between various elected officials Finger pointing between various elected officials

Office of Legislative Audits Department of Legislative Services 3Presentation to NSAA Finger Pointing - a Recipe for Disaster Governor Local Boards of Elections State Elections Administrator County Governments State Board of Elections Local Election Administrators

Office of Legislative Audits Department of Legislative Services 4Presentation to NSAA Concerns about General Election Only 7 weeks to identify and correct problems with electronic voting system Real concern for voter disenfranchisement in what was predicted to be a very close gubernatorial election Major problems initially confined to the largest and heavily Democratic county and Baltimore City

Office of Legislative Audits Department of Legislative Services 5Presentation to NSAA OLA Response After primary election and the magnitude of problems became apparent, legislative leadership wanted an audit OLA had concerns about lack of time to perform an audit and related risks Met with leadership and developed a quick response monitoring process

Office of Legislative Audits Department of Legislative Services 6Presentation to NSAA Approach Identify and report on problems and status of corrective actions On-site presence at the local boards and the State Board of Elections; plus attend all related meetings/testing/training Issue weekly (real time) reports for each jurisdiction using quick response process

Office of Legislative Audits Department of Legislative Services 7Presentation to NSAA Jurisdictions Under OLA Monitoring

Office of Legislative Audits Department of Legislative Services 8Presentation to NSAA Election Problems Software & hardware glitches with Electronic Poll Books Shortage of election judges and electronic voting machine technicians Poor judge training and all training material not delivered timely Inadequate number of paper provisional ballots No controls to ensure polling places received all necessary equipment Control over some voting memory cards was compromised Lack of communication between polling places and local boards headquarters Tension between State Board and local boards both prior to and after the Primary Election

Office of Legislative Audits Department of Legislative Services 9Presentation to NSAA Mission Accomplished Six weekly status reports issued. Successful General Election Provided State Board with an assessment of the locals corrective actions Television and print media kept issues in public eye. $150,000 NSAA prize shared with Kansas

Office of Legislative Audits Department of Legislative Services 10Presentation to NSAA Questions? Special reports are available at:

Office of Legislative Audits Department of Legislative Services 11Presentation to NSAA Invite to Baltimore Bash 08 Things to See and Do Within Walking Distance of Conference Center: Baltimore Inner Harbor Maryland Science Center/Imax Theatre 1st Mariner Arena (Home of the Blast – MLIS) Little Italy (Numerous Old World Restaurants) Fort McHenry National Monument (Star Spangled Banner) Historic Fell's Point & Hippodrome Theatre Oriole Park at Camden Yards (maybe they will be good by then?) National Aquarium at Baltimore USS Constellation (last surviving Civil War combatant), Lightship Chesapeake, USS Torsk (Fleet Class submarine credited with sinking the last enemy warships in World War II) & USCGC Taney (last surviving ship afloat from the attack on Pearl Harbor)