Voting test shows no flaws in system

With just six days left before the Oct. 10 voter registration deadline, the voting system that will be used on Election Day passed a public test Wednesday morning with flying colors, County Clerk Jim Fielder said. Still, members of local group Verify the Vote are not satisfied. \nThough all three machines passed tests, it does not mean they will be accurate on Election Day, Verify the Vote members said. \n"If they were going to do really thorough testing of our current voting system, it would take over 80 hours," Cynthia Hoffman, a Verify the Vote member, said.\nHoffman and other members of Verify the Vote are concerned that the nearly 20-year-old electronic voting machines are not reliable, citing a study by the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law. \nVerify the Vote member Jim Allison said he thinks the systems need to be audited on Election Day. \n"I'm not satisfied with the notion that I'm supposed to trust somebody," he said. "If there's a subtle problem, these tests won't reveal them." \nFielder, who is part of the county's three-member Board of Elections, said he has faith in the machines.\n"As far as testing them further, I think we could test them from now to eternity and there would be that group that will still allege that there's problems with electronic machines," he said. "I think they have an agenda that they're going to continue on. No, I do not believe that they really have a reason to mistrust the machines." \nVerify the Vote members are still pushing for the requests they voiced at a Sept. 13 meeting, Hoffman said.\nThe group has petitioned the Board of Elections and requested that the summary tapes be released from the voting machines on Election Day so the results can be double-checked. The group also wants to audit any paper ballots cast before Election Day, Hoffman said. \n"I think we're at a time where voters are concerned," Hoffman said. \nIn the future, the group hopes to implement an optical scan voting system that uses paper instead of electronics to record the data, a system Hoffman said will be cheaper than updating the current electronic system. \nThough Verify the Vote wants to check the election accuracy on Election Day by releasing the summary tapes, Election Supervisor Jessica White said the results will be locked up through the recount period, which is 48 hours. However, the group is welcome to check anything after that time period if it is curious, she said.\nThe Election Board will not hire workers to pull the summary tapes that night, Fielder said. \n"We don't do that for other groups, and we're not going to do that for Verify the Vote," he said.\nWednesday's public testing checked the reliability of MicroVote's Infinity machines as well as the older machines, the release said. The Infinity machines recently had their new software certified, Fielder said, which accommodates a straight-party vote, something it could not do before. \nResidents of Monroe County, including students, can register to vote in Room 202 of the Justice Building, 301 N. College Ave. Election Day is Nov. 7.