In the midst of national controversies about electronic voting machines, Maryland and Virginia plan to go back to paper ballots.

Voters in several West Virginia counties have complained that touch-screen machines, made by Election Systems & Software, flipped their votes from Democrat to Republican candidates when they cast early ballots this month.

"Maryland will scrap its $65 million electronic system and go back to paper ballots in time for the 2010 midterm elections," the Washington Post reported Thursday.

Last year, Maryland's General Assembly voted unanimously to dump electronic voting machines. However, Maryland won't finish off its $65 million debt for the soon-to-be-phased-out machines until 2014. Switching to paper ballots could cost the state another $40 million.

The Virginia legislature passed a law last year that prohibits the state from purchasing any additional electronic voting machines, but it probably will take several years to completely switch back to paper ballots, the Post added.

Neither Maryland nor Virginia prints copies of ballots for voters to review.

West Virginia Secretary of State Betty Ireland has consistently defended the machines brought into the state in 2005 after she was elected.

New York University's Brennan Center for Justice recently praised Ireland for her efforts in overseeing voting machines in West Virginia. Ireland is not running for re-election.

Natalie Tenant, the Democrats' candidate for secretary of state, said Thursday, "We need to take a look at these machines. They need to be opened up, so we can see how the software is working.

"I don't think the public knows how exactly they work and why they have the problems they have. If I become secretary of state, I would have a review of the machines."

Tenant said the Legislature and 55 county clerks must play a role in any review.

"And the public and the voters should be part of it," she said.

Charles Minimah, Republican candidate for secretary of state, said, "Secretary of State Betty Ireland has worked very diligently to see the electronic voting machines don't compromise voters.

"I would agree to a review or an audit of the machines," Minimah said. "If problems persist, West Virginia might even consider scrapping them - but when we talk about dumping the current touch-screen machines, there is also a cost associated with that."

David Jefferson, a computer scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, is most concerned about electronic machines that fail to create "a verified paper trail" of all ballots.

Jefferson, who has been a technical adviser to five secretaries of state in California, said systems without paper trails are not auditable.

In the midst of national controversies about electronic voting machines, Maryland and Virginia plan to go back to paper ballots.

Voters in several West Virginia counties have complained that touch-screen machines, made by Election Systems & Software, flipped their votes from Democrat to Republican candidates when they cast early ballots this month.

"Maryland will scrap its $65 million electronic system and go back to paper ballots in time for the 2010 midterm elections," the Washington Post reported Thursday.

Last year, Maryland's General Assembly voted unanimously to dump electronic voting machines. However, Maryland won't finish off its $65 million debt for the soon-to-be-phased-out machines until 2014. Switching to paper ballots could cost the state another $40 million.

The Virginia legislature passed a law last year that prohibits the state from purchasing any additional electronic voting machines, but it probably will take several years to completely switch back to paper ballots, the Post added.

Neither Maryland nor Virginia prints copies of ballots for voters to review.

West Virginia Secretary of State Betty Ireland has consistently defended the machines brought into the state in 2005 after she was elected.

New York University's Brennan Center for Justice recently praised Ireland for her efforts in overseeing voting machines in West Virginia. Ireland is not running for re-election.

Natalie Tenant, the Democrats' candidate for secretary of state, said Thursday, "We need to take a look at these machines. They need to be opened up, so we can see how the software is working.

"I don't think the public knows how exactly they work and why they have the problems they have. If I become secretary of state, I would have a review of the machines."

Tenant said the Legislature and 55 county clerks must play a role in any review.

"And the public and the voters should be part of it," she said.

Charles Minimah, Republican candidate for secretary of state, said, "Secretary of State Betty Ireland has worked very diligently to see the electronic voting machines don't compromise voters.

"I would agree to a review or an audit of the machines," Minimah said. "If problems persist, West Virginia might even consider scrapping them - but when we talk about dumping the current touch-screen machines, there is also a cost associated with that."

David Jefferson, a computer scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, is most concerned about electronic machines that fail to create "a verified paper trail" of all ballots.

Jefferson, who has been a technical adviser to five secretaries of state in California, said systems without paper trails are not auditable.

"There is no way to do a recount if a candidate wants a recount. There is no independent check on electronic tools," Jefferson said in a phone interview Thursday.

"An individual voter who votes on a machine without any paper trail has no way of knowing whether a machine recorded his vote properly. Electronic machines with no paper trails are unacceptable. They should not be used. They can't be considered trustworthy.

"That does not mean they do not give correct results most of the time," Jefferson said, "but there is no way of knowing if there is a bug in the software. There is no way of correcting votes and knowing whether votes are lost."

Kent Carper, president of the Kanawha County Commission, was a major proponent of optical-scan electronic voting machines, rather than touch-screen machines.

Optical-scan machines, used in 19 West Virginia counties, require voters to use pens to fill out ballots, which are saved and can be reviewed.

Touch-screen machines, used in 34 counties, have "a paper-trail device added on the machine. The machine creates that paper trail, not the voter," Carper said Thursday.

In addition to ES&S, the major companies making these voting machines are: Sequoia Voting Systems, Hart InterCivic and Diebold, now Premier Election Systems.

Penny Venetis, a lawyer with the Constitutional Litigation Clinic at Rutgers University, is part of a lawsuit questioning the accuracy and integrity of New Jersey's voting machines, which are made by Sequoia.

Experts who testified in the lawsuit, Venetis said, believe the "10,000 voting machines used in 18 out of the 21 counties in New Jersey can be manipulated to throw an election."

The experts concluded, "Vote-stealing software can be easily installed in the AVC Advantage [Sequoia machines] in less than eight minutes. The technical knowledge needed to write vote-stealing software is widespread and common," Venetis told the Institute for Public Accuracy, a nonprofit group based in Washington, D.C., and San Francisco.

Officials in New Jersey, where five million voters are expected to use electronic machines this year, defend their voting system.

Carper urged Kanawha County residents to vote early at the Courthouse on Virginia Street, where the County Clerk's Office will be open today from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Reach Paul J. Nyden

at pjny...@wvgazette.com

 or 348-5164.