State's punchcard ballots likely to stay, says Reed

OLYMPIA -- The words "punchcard ballot" and "chad" may inspire shivers of fear in Florida, but the secretary of state-elect in Washington state says he's happy with punchcard voting.

The statistics bear him out. An analysis by The Associated Press shows that in the recent recount of Washington's U.S. Senate race, the 16 counties that used punchcard ballots saw their totals change by an average of only 0.04 percent.

In the 23 counties using the newer, more expensive "optical scan" system -- in which voters mark a circle next to candidates' names -- the average change from the original to the recount was 0.46 percent.

The punchcard system "is an archaic technology," admitted newly elected Secretary of State Sam Reed. But with a thorough pre-inspection of ballots, firm and fair rules on how to determine voter intent, and good training of ballot counters, Reed said, punchcards work.

"I would not support a move away from punchcards," said Reed, a Republican who is currently auditor of Thurston County, where punchcards are used.

Among the counties using optical scan ballots was Douglas County, where the totals changed 6.2 percent in the recount. Only one other county recorded a change of more than 1 percent: Skamania County, where optical scan ballots are used, had its totals change 1.3 percent.

The problem in Douglas County was that write-in ballots were accidentally read twice during the first count, thus inflating the totals, said county Auditor Thad Duvall. It was human error, Duvall said, adding that human error will always be a factor no matter what system is used.

Not counting Douglas County, the average change in vote totals for optical scan counties was 0.2 percent, still five times higher than punchcard counties.

Snohomish County Auditor Bob Terwilliger, president of the Washington State Association of County Auditors, agrees with Reed that forcing counties to abolish punchcards would be a mistake.

"In a recount environment, there will always be some issues related to the old hanging chad," said Terwilliger, whose county switched to an optical scan system several years ago.

Terwilliger said that having good rules and regulations in place to deal with uncertainty is more important than the kind of ballot used.

"The state of Washington has done a pretty good job with these issues," said Terwilliger, who ran unsuccessfully in the Democratic primary for secretary of state.

He also said the cost of switching to optical scan balloting would be prohibitive for some counties. Snohomish County spent about $300,000 when it switched in the mid-1990s, he said, and has since spent about $200,000 to buy more machines.

The system also costs more to maintain and run than the punchcard system, he said.

The advantage to optical scan ballots is that they make it much easier to determine voter intent, Terwilliger said. People write messages on the ballots, cross out their wrong choices with red pens and even use white-out.

"They tell you pretty clearly what they were intending," Terwilliger said.

In the wake of Florida's ballot-counting fiasco, one state legislator is already planning a bill to make counties use the optical scan method. Rep. Doug Ericksen, R-Bellingham, said the cost of replacing the machines would be far less than the cost of enduring what Florida has gone through in the past few weeks.

Reed said he expects that most counties will keep their current systems until the next step in ballot technology comes along -- computerized voting.

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