NJ residents file lawsuit to block e-voting

WASHINGTON – A coalition of New Jersey residents filed a lawsuit Tuesday asking a judge to stop the state from using electronic voting machines in the Nov. 2 election.

Penny Venetis, a professor with the Constitutional Litigation Clinic at Rutgers University, filed the lawsuit on behalf of two peace activist groups and two residents, including Democratic state Assemblyman Reed Gusciora, in the New Jersey Superior Court in Trenton.

The plaintiffs contend that New Jersey’s e-voting systems are insecure, Venetis said. The systems don’t provide for a voter verified paper trail, which many critics of e-voting machines advocate, and New Jersey election officials don’t have rules for how the machines should be stored or who should have access to them, she added.

With two weeks before the election, the goal of the lawsuit is “that the tried and true method of voting on paper ballots is used in this election,” Venetis said. “The problem is (the voting machines) can be tampered with so easily.”

New Jersey’s Office of the Attorney General defended the state’s e-voting systems as secure.

Fifteen of New Jersey’s 21 counties plan to use direct electronic recording machines (DREs) in the Nov. 2 election, according to Lee Moore, a spokesman for the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. New Jersey plans to use four models of e-voting machines.

The attorney general’s office won’t comment on the specific lawsuit, Moore said, but he defended New Jersey’s DREs. “It’s not prudent to pilot new technology in this election,” he said of the voter-verified paper trail the lawsuit calls for.

The state is open to new technologies in the future, but it’s too late to change the voting system for this election, Moore said.

“The counties, by and large, share our confidence … in the voting technology we have in place now,” he said. “Essentially, what we have been saying all along is that New Jersey elections have been historically problem-free.”

Venetis noted that polls in New Jersey predict a tight race between U.S. President George Bush and challenger Democrat John Kerry, a Democrat from Massachusetts. The plaintiffs waited until now to file the lawsuit because they had hoped to work out a compromise with state officials on security measures, she said.

“The election is now, and the race is close,” Venetis said. “We want every vote to count.”

The Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), a trade association that represents e-voting machine vendors, called on the judge to throw out the case, saying thousands of votes could be lost if the state uses paper ballots.

“This is a classic case of a solution in search of a problem,” ITAA President Harris Miller said in a statement. “Electronic voting machines deliver unprecedented levels of accuracy and security to the voting process. Attempting to stop the use of this technology two weeks before the presidential election ignores history, the facts of the current situation, common sense and the best interests of voters in New Jersey.”