Coffman OK’s More Voting Equipment for ‘08 Elections

Hart optical scanners used in 47 counties recertified

Denver, February 28, 2008 – Today, Secretary of State Mike Coffman announced that Hart’s optical scanners, the eScan, central count scanner and BallotNow software, are conditionally certified for use in Colorado. This reverses Coffman’s December 17, 2007 decision to decertify the equipment following a court-ordered recertification process.

The major deficiency of the eScan and Central Count Scanner, as identified by the Secretary of State’s Testing Board, was a failure to count ballots correctly when there are extraneous marks on the ballot. Specifically, the Testing Board found that, when a voter inadvertently left a dot in a voting box (perhaps as the result of a “pen rest”) or inadvertently marked a line across a corner of the voting box, the system sometimes counted the mark as a vote.

Testimony from county clerks at public hearings, as well as the findings of the Testing Board, established that any error by the Hart system in counting an extraneous mark as a vote will be detected and corrected in those situations where the voter properly marked another box for that race or question. In those situations, the Hart system properly flags the ballot because of the apparent “overvote,” and election judges are required to physically examine the ballot and record the vote as intended by the voter.

However, public testimony and the findings of the Testing Board established that in an “undervote” situation (where the voter chooses not to make a choice in a race or question), the Hart system sometimes incorrectly records an extraneous mark as a vote, and the error would not be flagged by the system.

To mitigate the potential problem, the Testing Board developed draft procedures, at Coffman’s request, to be used by the counties to identify ballots containing extraneous marks. The process required election judges to review every ballot prior to scanning and to determine actual voter intent for any ballot where an extraneous mark is found in a voting box.

After listening to public testimony on February 21 and February 26 and reviewing the draft procedures, Coffman concluded that the draft procedures would be ineffectual and unnecessary. The testimony presented demonstrated that it is extremely unlikely that extraneous marks would change the outcome of the race. Even in that rare circumstance, there would be a mandatory recount, because the difference between candidates or questions would be less than one-half of one percent of the votes cast, and in a recount the Secretary of State may require that every ballot be examined physically for extraneous marks.

In his decision, therefore, Coffman conditionally recertified the Hart optical scanner, the eScan, central count scanner and BallotNow software, but imposed two requirements: (1) that language be included on the ballot notifying voters of the need to check their ballots carefully for any extraneous or stray marks within the voting boxes, and (2) in any recount, every ballot must be physically examined for the presence of extraneous marks in voting boxes so that voter intent can be properly recorded by election judges.

Currently, 47 Colorado counties utilize the Hart optical scanner.