The Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (TACIR) is conducting an ongoing study of voting and election systems in Tennessee. The first report on voting machine systems was presented to TACIR in June.

TACIR staff prepared a subsequent report of recommendations for improving Tennessee's election systems, including adoption of voter verified paper audit trails. The report also has results from a survey of county election administrators across the state. This report was presented to TACIR last week. Following are some highlights from the study.

(Also see Joe Powell, who raises some good questions.)

TACIR's work is ongoing, and complicated by the possibility of new federal regulations with which Tennessee would have to comply. One such bill, "The Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act" (HR 811), also known as the Holt Bill, has been held up in Republican controlled committees since it was originally introduced in 2003.

Earlier this year, the bill finally made it out of committee, but as of yet the House Democratic leadership has not scheduled it for a vote. Frankly, the bill should have been on the First 100 Days Agenda of the new Democratic Congress.

(NOTE: Rep. Zach Wamp is a cosponsor, as are Reps. Steve Cohen, Jim Cooper, Lincoln Davis, Bart Gordon, and John Tanner. That leaves Reps. Jimmy Duncan, David Davis, and Marsha Blackburn as the only Tennessee Representatives who haven't signed on as cosponsors.)

According to TACIR, the dilemma (other than cost) for Tennessee and other states moving forward with election systems reforms such as "voter verified paper audit trails" (VVPAT) is whether new systems will comply with whatever legislation may eventually be passed in Congress. For this reason, TACIR recommends that Tennessee adopt "a standard for VVPAT that would meet federal guidelines under consideration."

The TACIR study is, for now, focusing on VVPAT, because "Many voters and experts lack confidence in the machinery and process of elections despite the replacement of voting systems all across the country. Tennessee has not been immune."

Their report notes that "many states are in the process of changing over to voting machines with paper records, with 75% of states now having paper record requirements or using paper record technologies statewide. The 12 states that still have no paper record requirements are Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia."

Other measures are being looked at to bolster voter confidence such as post-election audits and enhanced voter registration and verification. The study is also looking at ways better manage the cost of elections. TACIR also surveyed county election administrators across the state to find out their concerns and concerns of voters in their district.

Here are some highlights from the June report on Tennessee election systems, entitled Trust but Verify:

• Nationally, 16 states use optical scan, 13 states a combination of optical scan and DRE ("direct recording electronic") voting machines with VVPAT ("voter verified paper audit trail"), three states use DRE with VVPAT, and one state (Oregon) votes by mail.

• All 95 counties in Tennessee use electronic voting in some form. Two use optical scan systems (one by Diebold, one by ES&S), 17 use touch screen DRE systems (by Diebold and ES&S), and the rest (the vast majority) use pushbutton DRE systems (by Hart and Microvote).

• Concerns with DRE systems include: voters cannot verify their votes are recorded correctly, publicly viewable counting and independent recounts are impossible, proprietary software not available for public or regulatory review, closed and proprietary federal testing standards, design and programming errors that can affect election outcomes.

• VVPAT paper trail options include optical scan systems, add-on VVPAT printers for DRE systems, and voting by mail. Punch card and centrally tabulated optical scan systems are also discussed.

• Advantages of optical scan include: easy to understand, human-readable ballots for audit and recounts, under and over vote protection, HAVA disability compliance, many people can vote at once. Disadvantages: proprietary software, requires replacement of DREs in 92 Tennessee counties, ballot printing costs.

• Advantages of DRE with VVPAT include: utilize existing DRE equipment, no pre-printed ballot required, under and over vote protection. Disadvantages include: audit and recounts more difficult and time-consuming, exposure to malicious or negligent programming at both the voting and counting stages, confusing to voters, long ballots mean long lines at the polls.

• Advantages of voting by mail include: increased voter turnout, more time for voters to consider their choices, automatically keeps voter rolls updated. Disadvantages include: more opportunity for voter coercion and vote buying, prohibitive cost (although Oregon reports savings), and voters who prefer the tradition of voting at a local polling place.

The follow-up report presented to TACIR last week provides recommendations and includes findings from a survey of Tennessee county election administrators. Following are some highlights from that report.

Recommendations:

• Implement voter-verified paper audit trails statewide within a reasonable time frame.

• Adopt VVPAT that can be counted by hand, as well as by machine -- machine tallies to support prompt reporting of results with hand counting for audit and recount purposes. (The report notes that experience with DRE VVPAT printers has thus far been unsatisfactory, mainly due to difficulty reading the printouts).

• Adopt a standard for VVPAT that would meet federal guidelines under consideration.

• Request a review by the Election Assistance Commission to find out how much of Tennessee’s remaining HAVA funds would be available to purchase new voting machines.

• Require voting machine vendors to escrow all of their proprietary software so that it can be reviewed by experts as recommended by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission and secured for further analysis if vote-counting problems should arise.

• Strengthen audit requirements to ensure that a random sample of machines is routinely tested by comparing hand counts to machine totals, and when results vary by more than a small percentage, that a broader recount process follows.

• Consider making early voting and voting by mail more accessible. (One simple change suggested is to not require a reason for absentee voting as is currently the requirement in Tennessee, and instead allow anyone to vote absentee for any reason.)

• Consider a Vote by Mail pilot program that would allow the state to assess the advantages and disadvantages of this type of voting in Tennessee.

• Strengthen security and pre-test requirements and make them consistent for all voting systems.

• Consider election day parallel voting machine tests to detect hidden programs that are triggered by election day conditions and are erased so that they cannot be detected later.

Election administrator survey results:

• 68 counties responded (72%).

• Election systems in use: Microvote Infinity 46%, Hart e-Slate 28%, ES&S iVotronic 16%, Microvote 464 and Infinity 6%, ES&S Optical Scan 1%, ES&S iVotronic and Optical Scan 1%, Premier Optical Scan and TSX 1%.

• Only 21% of counties report voting machine complaints. 85% have a formal complaint procedure.

• 98% have procedures to match the number of votes cast to the number of voters.

• 44% report "rare" eligibility problems at polls, 24% report "some", and 29% report "frequent". Only 3% reported "none".

• 91% would choose the same voting system again.

• The most frequent challenge reported was finding qualified poll workers, followed by voter education, followed by "fail safe" voters*, and staff/office budget. Several also noted voter apathy and convincing candidates that they lost.

(*ED. NOTE: Knox County Election Administrator Greg Mackay explains "fail safe" voters: "Often times they tried to register at Drivers License or other state agency. We capture the vote at the precinct, then after the election we look to see if they did attempt to register at Safety. If they did we count the vote." Apparently, it also applies to people who have moved within the same jurisdiction but failed to update their voter registration address.)

• Advantages mentioned for holding local elections on the same day as state elections include cost savings, higher turnout, and voter convenience. Disadvantages noted include voter and poll worker confusion, longer ballots, less attention to local elections/issues. Several also noted that voters would sometimes have to declare a party to vote in non-partisan local elections.

• The two most frequently mentioned improvements to absentee voting included "no excuses" absentee voting and a better way to track military voters' change of address.

• The most frequently mentioned single change to improve the Tennessee election process was central voting locations (i.e. voters from any precinct can vote at any precinct location), followed by making central voting locations the same as early voting locations.

There is extensive analysis and discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of the various voting systems and more detailed explanation of the recommendations. You can read the full report here.

By way of editorial comment, the "Help America Vote Act" (HAVA) passed after the 2000 presidential election fiasco was in fact more of a "Help American Voting Machine Vendors" act and clearly has not addressed the underlying problems. The Holt Act was introduced in 2003, too late for the 2004 elections. Now it is still stalled in Congress, with no hope for passage much less reforms in time for the 2008 election. That's eight years we've had to fix this fundamental problem with American democracy.

There are some great recommendations in the TACIR report. And while states are taking measures into their own hands absent any federal action, this is a federal problem. A handful of vendors selling election systems in nearly every state are largely unregulated. Improved federal standards and stricter oversight are needed. The Holt Bill or something like it should be passed by Congress, and it should include federal funding for the necessary improvements, including VVPAT.