Makipag-ugnayan:

Christy Setzer, New Heights Communications, christy@newheightscommunications.com

Mary Boyle, Common Cause, mboyle@commoncause.org

Ang paghahanda sa makina ng pagboto ay "hindi sapat," ngunit maaaring gawin ang mga pagbabago bago ang Nob. 6

WASHINGTON – A lack of effective voter protection measures place Delaware near the bottom of a ranking of states based upon its preparedness to successfully manage voting machine failures on Election Day, a new report finds.

The report, “Counting Votes 2012: A State by State Look at Voting Technology Preparedness,” was released Wednesday by three non-partisan organizations focused on voting – the Verified Voting Foundation, the Rutgers Law School Constitutional Litigation Clinic, and Common Cause. Despite Delaware’s low rating, the report emphasizes that election officials still have time to make changes in the weeks leading up to the Nov. 6 election.

“Delaware can still make improvements to prepare for the upcoming election,” said Pamela Smith, president of Verified Voting. “No election system is perfect, and ensuring fair, accurate elections is a national effort. Everyone from election officials to citizens should be involved to make sure this process at the very heart of our democracy is healthy.”

Steps Delaware can take to improve election procedures by Nov. 6 include: upgrading ballot accounting and reconciliation practices, which would be able to catch machine errors; encouraging overseas and military voters to cast ballots by mail even if they have the option to vote via e-mail or fax; and ensuring that comprehensive contingency plans are in place (re-enforcing best practices from the secretary of state on down, for example).

Maraming mga estado ang nagpabaya na tugunan o maghanda para sa hindi paggana ng makina ng pagboto, at sa bawat pambansang halalan, nabigo ang mga sistema ng pagboto. Noong 2008, halimbawa, higit sa 1,800 mga problema sa mga makina ng pagboto ang naiulat sa buong bansa.

“If history is any indication, machines in November will fail, and votes will be lost,” said Susannah Goodman of Common Cause. “Backup systems like paper ballots, audits and good ballot reconciliation practices need to be put in place to be sure outcomes are correct.”

Delaware received an overall rating of “inadequate” based on its performance in five areas:

. Does the state require paper ballots or records of every vote cast? (When computer failures or human errors cause machine miscounts, election officials can use the original ballots to determine correct totals. Additionally, paper ballots can be used to audit machine counts.)

. Does the state have adequate contingency plans at each polling place in the event of machine failure?

. Does the state protect military and overseas voters and their ballots from alteration, manipulation and privacy violations by ensuring that marked ballots are not cast online?

. Has the state instituted a post-election audit to determine whether the electronically reported results are correct?

. Does the state use robust ballot reconciliation and tabulation practices to help ensure that no ballots are lost or added as votes are tallied and aggregated from the local to state level?

In addition to Delaware, five other states were ranked near the bottom of the list – South Carolina, Colorado, Kansas, Louisiana and Mississippi – while five states were ranked near the top – Minnesota, New Hampshire, Ohio, Vermont and Wisconsin.

"Walang boto ang dapat mawala sa 2012," sabi ni Penny Venetis, co-director ng Rutgers Law School Constitutional Litigation Clinic. "Umiiral ang teknolohiya upang i-verify ang mga boto, at maaaring magkaroon ng mga pamamaraan sa buong bansa upang matiyak na ang bawat boto ay binibilang bilang cast, tulad ng hinihingi ng konstitusyon."

The national election is more than three months away, and that leaves time for states like Delaware to make simple changes in some of the categories ranked by the study.

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