Electronic Voting: The 2004 Election and Beyond

Flashback: Florida 2000

Voting Technology: Key voting rights laws Post-2000 litigation The Help America Vote Act Voting technology in 2004

The Right to Vote 1965

The Voting Rights Act Forbids practices that “result in” denial of the vote on account of race. 42 USC 1973 Prohibits practices that abridge voting rights of language minorities. 42 USC 1973b

Disability Access Key Concepts Under ADA – no discrimination or exclusion by public entities – readily accessible to extent feasible Applicability to the voting process Does the ADA require secret and independent voting?

Key Voting Rights Cases Gray v. Sanders (1963) “one person, one vote” Reynolds v. Sims (1964) equal-sized districts required Harper v. Virginia (1966) striking down poll tax

Bush v. Gore

President George W. Bush

What’s the principle underlying Bush v. Gore? “Having once granted the right to vote on equal terms, the State may not, by later arbitrary and disparate treatment, value one person’s vote over that of another”

Voting Equipment

The Help America Vote Act Doesn’t mandate the elimination of punch cards or the implementation of electronic voting Authorizes $325 million for “buyout” of punch card and lever voting equipment, plus $3 billion in requirements payments Requires a “permanent paper record” that can be used for manual audits, but not a “voter verified” paper record At least one unit accessible to people with disabilities must be at each polling place by 2006

Ohio’s Voting Systems

Voting Equipment by County 2000Voting Equipment by County 2000Voting Equipment by County 2000Voting Equipment by County 2000 Type of Voting Equipment by County

Voting Equipment by County 2004

From The Onion 5/19/04

The Paper Trail

Voting Technology Usage Equipment Punch card34%14% Optical Scan28%35% Lever18%14% Electronic11%29% Paper1% Mixed8%7%

Precinct-Count Optical Scan “Ballots which have been over voted, mistakenly marked or mutilated are automatically returned to the voter for review. The system automatically generates a tape printout explaining why the ballot was returned to the voter and what to do with the returned ballot”

Ohio H.B. 262 Voter verified paper audit trail – “a physical paper printout on which the voter's ballot choices, as registered by a direct recording electronic voting machine, are recorded. The voter shall be permitted to visually or audibly inspect the contents of the physical paper printout.” Ohio R.C

Ohio H.B. 262 Not a receipt “It shall not provide to a voter any type of receipt or voter confirmation that the voter legally may retain after leaving the polling place.” Ohio R.C

For More Information: moritzlaw.osu.edu/electionlaw equalvote.blogspot.com

CLE Request for CLE Credit for Attendance (Form 1)