State GOP sues election board over voting machines

The North Carolina State Board of Elections gave the state Republican Party an itemized response Thursday evening to concerns it cited in a threat to sue over problems with touch-screen voting machines.

But it was not enough to fend off a federal suit filed by the state Republican Party in U.S. District Court on Friday.

The Associated Press reported that the suit maintains the touch-screen machines are thwarting voters’ efforts to cast Republican votes. It accuses state election officials of failing to take action to ensure votes are accurately counted.

N.C. Elections Director Gary Bartlett told legal counsel for the state party that his e-mailed letter appears intended to turn isolated problems into “a crisis of confidence in the integrity of the election.”

“Your letter has the facts wrong in several critical respects,” Bartlett said.

“Please let me assure you, the members of your party and all voters in North Carolina that elections officials, as always, are doing everything we can to give every voter in this state the opportunity to cast a ballot with confidence that it will be properly counted.”

Electronic Systems and Software, manufacturer of the equipment that the suit aims to ban, sent a letter to Bartlett on Friday attempting to further refute allegations against the iVotronic touch-screen voting machines.

The letter from Adam Carbullido of ES&S said the state GOP’s accusation that calibration issues and default selections may have been made to improperly benefit certain parties or candidates “is both unfair and untrue. ES&S uses safeguards in all voting equipment to ensure that each vote counts as intended by the voter.”

Bartlett’s three-page response to the GOP’s e-mailed letter addresses concerns he said “are no different than ones that must be addressed in every election” with direct record electronic equipment of various kinds that have been used in the state since 1980 and the iVotronic voting machines since 2006.

Deputy elections director Johnnie McLean told the Associated Press earlier Thursday that state elections officials have heard of a handful of problems in New Hanover and Craven counties and those were corrected on the first couple of days of early voting.

Bartlett said “your letter implies that you have accumulated a list of equipment performance problems you have not chosen to share with elections officials. Unless you identify concerns with specificity there is no way that they can be properly addressed. We have already addressed every concern you have brought to our attention.”

Bartlett’s letter says, “It is that 35 counties in N.C. use iVotronic voting machine for one-stop and 23 counties use them on Election Day.”

Bartlett said the e-mail accusation “is also incorrect that PrintElect programs all the iVotronic machines in all counties.”

PrintElect is a New Bern company with the franchise for the equipment manufacturer that has the only equipment certified for election use in North Carolina.

“It must be noted that the current iVotronic equipment about which you profess deep concern has been nationally certified and is used in voting jurisdictions throughout the United States,” Bartlett said.

“Some of the largest counties have done their own ballot coding for this election, including counties that use iVotronic machines,” he said. “Brunswick, Forsyth, Guilford, Mecklenburg, Pender and Surry counties have done their own ballot coding, or programming, for this election. Chatham and Wake have done their own coding for optical scan ES&S equipment.”

The N.C. GOP demanded that elections officials provide notice about problems and to preserve all data and track all complaints.

Bartlett’s letter says and shows with attachments that those safeguards were put in place in 2007.

He said that additionally, following discussions with state Republican Party officials last Friday, all counties were advised to inform the state board of any problems.

There have been a total of three official complaints, two from Craven County, where a demonstration was given this week to Craven County Republican Party officials who appeared satisfied.

No new complaints have surfaced in Craven County, said Erin Burridge, elections director here.

“One gentleman came in to voice concerns today, feels like there might be a problem with screen to paper but he had checked everything and it was correct. His concern stemmed from a statement made on the radio and his family. We put it on file.”

“As far as the (Craven County Elections) board and my staff, it’s about the voter,” Burridge said. Our goal is that the voters mark ballots freely, fairly and without influence the way they wish. Our passion is in the process. We don’t want to see it fail and wouldn’t do anything to make it fail.”

Sue Book can be reached at 252-635-5665 or sbook@freedomenc.com.