New Era for VA announces formation of coalition to press for paper trails in Virginia elections

A coalition of citizens groups will be working to pass legislation through the Virginia legislature during the 2007 session that would require all election machines in the state to provide voter-verifiable paper audit trails. In addition to New Era for VA, the Verifiable Voting Coalition of Virginia includes the League of Women Voters, Virginia Verified Voting, and the Southern Coalition for Secured Voting, among others.

Currently, most Virginians vote on paperless machines, known as direct record electronic (DRE) machines, that resemble computer laptops. Critics, including computer experts, note that software errors or deliberate manipulation of the software programs can result in errors that may not be detectable before, or even during and after, an election, and that such errors could affect the results of elections. With voters unable to verify that their votes have been properly cast, and with no paper record of each vote, there is no way to audit the machines or to conduct a recount in the event of a close or contested election.

While it is possible to add paper printers to DREs to achieve the goal of verifiability, the Coalition believes the better approach is the use of paper ballots read by optic scanners. Not only is this a less expensive approach, but it is already in use by most Virginia jurisdictions for counting absentee ballots, and the system is familiar both to election officials and to voters who vote by absentee ballot.

Last year the New Electoral Reform Alliance for Virginia (New Era) and Virginia Verified Voting supported legislation introduced in the Virginia legislature by Delegate Tim Hugo and Senator Jeannemarie Devolites Davis that would mandate voter-verifiable paper audit trails as well as provide for regular random audits. Delegate Hugo and Senator Devolites Davis have announced plans to introduce similar legislation this year.