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Event Recap

On September 22, 2006, the AEI-Brookings Election Reform Project welcomed Representative Rush Holt (D-NJ) as the keynote speaker for an event entitled, “The 2006 Elections—Are We Ready?” Representative Holt emphasized that new voting technologies being adopted in accordance with the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) need to be both auditable and actually audited. He also discussed legislation he introduced, The Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act, which would advance this goal by requiring all direct recording electronic (DRE) voting machines to have a voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT).

Following Representative Holt’s address, Norman J. Ornstein of AEI, moderated a panel featuring perspectives from engineering, computer science, and political science entitled “Progress and Pitfalls in Voting Technology.” Presenter Steven Hertzberg of the Election Science Institute discussed his organization’s study of the May 2006 primary in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. The panel’s second presenter, Michael Shamos of the Institute for Software Research at Carnegie Mellon University, tackled the issue of what voting method is “best” by rating different voting schemes on a one-to-ten scale for each of five categories: security, secrecy, accessibility, usability, and reliability. To conclude the panel, Charles Stewart III of MIT addressed the issue of “found votes,” or those the voters intend to cast but that, for a variety of reasons, never make it into the final, official count.

The event’s second panel, “HAVA: What Has Been Done? What Remains to Do?,” moderated by Thomas E. Mann of the Brookings Institution, focused on the human side of readiness for the November elections. Vermont Secretary of State Deborah Markowitz delivered an optimistic forecast for the administration of elections this November and emphasized the success that her state has had with allowing observers from both major political parties to participate at each step in the voting process. Donetta L. Davidson, a member of the United States Election Assistance Commission, highlighted the role the EAC has played since its creation under HAVA and discussed several steps it will be taking in the near future to further improve election administration. The focus of the panel shifted to legal concerns as Edward P. Foley, professor of law at the Moritz College of Law at Ohio State University, discussed the potential for significant litigation surrounding this fall’s elections. Finally, R. Doug Lewis, executive director of the Election Center, laid out a number of potential sources of problems for election administration, including with poll workers, databases, new equipment, and ballot delivery.