The State Board of Elections is expected today to rule on the validity of signatures on a petition drive to block early voting in this year?s election, but the board is already far along in its preparations to implement the new law.
The attorney general has ruled that this year?s version of early voting will remain in effect despite the petition, though a lawsuit by the petitioners is likely to challenge that ruling.
The early voting process is highly dependent on “e-polling books” being produced by Diebold, which also manufactures the computers on which the actual voting takes place. Some computer experts and private citizens have challenged the security of the computers.
Deputy elections administrator Ross Goldstein demonstrated the process to a reporter recently. The new computer registration books replace printouts of precinct registration files.
When voters walk into one of three early voting sites in Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Harford and Howard counties, and the city, as usual, they identify themselves by name, address and birth date ? but no photo ID.
They may vote at any site in the county, since all the registration computers are connected through a database and the fact that someone has voted is recorded on all the machines.
“Every poll book will have all the information” for the entire voter roll in each county, Goldstein said.
After signing a computer-generated signature card, the voter is given a voter authority card. This card configures the appropriate ballot on the computerized voting machines. The number of signed cards must correspond to the number of votes on each machine.
Unlike the registration computers, the voting machines are not networked. That means no one can gain access to the tally on the voting machines electronically from a remote location.
“We understand that limiting access is key,” Goldstein said.
The voting computers have been tested comparing results to paper ballots. The machines have been used successfully in four counties in 2002, statewide in 2004 and in municipal elections throughout the state.
