A national voter watchdog group has descended on Maryland, training observers to document problems in the Nov. 7 election.
“Maryland has needed help for a long time,” said Holly Jacobson, co-director of Voter Action, a nonpartisan advocacy group, which has represented residents nationwide challenging electronic voting machines. “Your recent primary has brought that to national attention.”
Along with Voter Action, several national and local groups are training Maryland residents to monitor next week?s election.
Marylanders will learn of pre-election testing, voting problems, delays, technical difficulties and audit procedures.
The nonprofit group Watch the Vote will position residents at polls during the entire electoral process and will have dispatchers ready to send resident videographers to problem precincts on election day.
Concerns with Maryland?s primary arose when human and mechanical errors caused voting problems.
Co-director of Voter Action Lowell Finley said videotaping polling places should not be a problem.
“The rules in Maryland are fairly relaxed,” Finley said.
“What?s prohibited is anything being done with the intent to intimidate voters. So long as all someone is doing [is] to record what?s going on, it?s something that should be permitted and welcomed. We don?t want to become part of any problem.”
Bob Ferraro, a founder of Save Our Votes, a local nonprofit group in favor of a voter-verified paper trial, said people are worried about the electronic voting machines.
“Our biggest concern is that this system is unauditable ? so there?s no way to know if these systems are counting the votes correctly or not,” he said.
Jacobson agreed with that assessment.
“The state has had these machines for a long time,” she said. “You can?t really blame it on, we haven?t used these before. Maryland exemplifies that these systems, they are not reliable enough to drive elections.”
Part of the Baltimore Examiner’s 2006 Election Coverage
