The Pew Charitable Trust’s examination of 17 areas such as polling station wait times placed Delaware in the top twenty-five percent of states overall when it comes to “election performance” – so says Pew’s manager of election initiatives Zachary Markovitz. “Delaware really is a pioneer leading the states, especially in improving their voter registration system,” said Markovitz. That improvement comes in the form of the “e-signature” program, which the First State implemented in 2009. The initiative lets Delaware residents complete the entire voter registration process at the DMV, instead of having to fill out paperwork, send it in by mail, wait for a response…. and very possibly, and understandably, have something get messed up along the way. The e-signature program was even praised by a task force commissioned by President Obama after the 2012 elections to find ways to improve election performance around the country. Still, Pew’s report found room for improvement in Delaware. Markovitz points to Delaware’s “residual vote rate” — basically, the number of votes cast in an election versus those actually counted. And when those numbers don’t match up, it could imply that some people’s votes are slipping through the cracks. …
Since 1996, every vote cast in the First State has been done on the Danaher 1242 electronic voting machine. Professor Charles Stewart of MIT helped to develop the idea of the residual vote rate in the wake of that messy 2000 election. He agrees with Pew; the jump in Delaware’s numbers could be the result of a number of things, including more people simply voting to abstain in 2012 rather than 2008. But, he also says it’s possible that the older electronic machines in Delaware are simply wearing out, and, yes, not recording votes.
… This isn’t the first time Delaware’s voting machines have been called into question. A 2012 study done by the Verified Voting Project and other groups called Delaware’s voting machine technology “inadequate” because of the Danaher machines. It noted that Delaware’s voting machines do not require paper backups or receipts of votes. It also faulted Delaware as being one of three states, Louisiana and West Virginia being the other two, that do not require emergency ballots to be on hand if one of the electronic machines fails.
Full Article: Pew report praises Delaware voter registration, questions voting machines | WDDE 91.1 FM | Delaware’s NPR News station.