News Clips

“The convenience of transmitting vote totals online does not outweigh the need of the American people to be assured their votes will be accurately transmitted and counted,” said the letter, which was also endorsed by five citizen and digital rights groups, including Common Cause and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

"The presence of these modems in the tabulator means that they are connected to the internet, and therefore present a tangible risk to the integrity of our voting system. The presence of these modems in the absence of a well-defined strategy for mitigating the risk they present, undermines confidence in the voting system,″ said John Marion, executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island.

Damon Effingham, acting director of the government watchdog group Common Cause, described the incident as "a catastrophic failure" of access to voting. "For decades, the MVA has been one of the main avenues for Americans to register to vote," Effingham said in a statement. "Tonight's news represents a catastrophic failure by the MVA in their duty to ensure every eligible Marylander has access to their right to vote." Effingham pointed out that the provisional ballots won't be counted until the second Wednesday after Tuesday's primary.

Damon Effingham, acting director of the Maryland chapter of Common Cause, said it was "preposterous" that it took MVA officials four days to figure out the extent of the problem and that there is no system to ensure that its system is working properly. "Did people have an issue during early voting?" Effingham said. "If one person had a difficult time voting, that's one too many." Effingham said the issue illustrates the need for Election Day registration. The General Assembly this year passed a bill that will allow voters to decide whether to amend the state constitution to allow it. The question will be on the ballot in November.

“The fact is that this is really serious, and it needs the attention that a hostile invasion would get,” says Susannah Goodman, director of a voting-integrity campaign for Common Cause, the government-watchdog group based in Washington, D.C. “Because they did it with bits not bullets, we haven’t responded in the way that we need to,” she says.