[Voterescue] ACLU, Press Groups Seek to Open Voting Case

[margaret]

http://www.truthout.org/article/aclu-press-groups-seek-open-voting-case

ACLU, Press Groups Seek to Open Voting Case
Wednesday 11 June 2008
by Diane C. Walsh, The Star-Ledger

Judge asked to reconsider ruling barring disclosure of machine test  
results.

The American Civil Liberties Union and press associations from  
throughout New Jersey are asking a Superior Court judge to reconsider  
her ruling barring computer experts from publicly revealing the  
results from their tests of Sequoia voting machines.

Superior Court Judge Linda Feinberg is expected to rule June 20 on  
the requests from the civil liberties and press groups to join the 4- 
year-old case that is examining the reliability of the state's  
electronic voting machines.

The ACLU argued that the conditions Feinberg set for testing the  
machines manufactured by Colorado-based Sequoia Voting Systems are  
"too restrictive," according to motion papers filed yesterday in  
Trenton.

The judge had said her order was designed to protect Sequoia's trade  
secrets. Feinberg precluded the experts from discussing their  
findings until the case is completed.

But Lawrence Lustberg, a Newark attorney who filed the ACLU motion,  
argued: "It is in the public's interest to know as much information,  
on as timely a basis as possible, about the state's voting computers  
in order to be fully educated about the security and accuracy of the  
democratic process."

He said that if the public is empowered with information, it could  
lead to improvements in the system or more voter participation.

The ACLU was joined by the New Jersey Press Association, North Jersey  
Media Group and New Jersey Foundation for Open Government.

Voting rights advocates, who initiated the case, called for the tests  
after discrepancies were found in the historic Feb. 5 presidential  
primary election. Officials in at least six counties - Bergen,  
Gloucester, Middlesex, Mercer, Ocean and Union - detected errors in  
the counts of Republicans and Democrats casting their ballots.

Officials said the numbers on the cartridge printouts did not match  
the paper-tape backup inside the machines. Sequoia maintained that  
the errors were caused by poll workers touching the wrong buttons on  
the control panels.

The testing was scheduled to begin in May, but it was delayed by the  
controversy over the experts' analysis. Penny Venetis, a professor at  
Rutgers Law Clinic who is representing the plaintiffs, balked at the  
restrictions, arguing that they were unfair. Andrew Appel and Edward  
Felton, the Princeton University computer experts examining the  
machines for the plaintiffs, said they could not conduct the test  
under such strict conditions, according to the ACLU motion.

Lustberg argued that the court was imposing a "straitjacket" on the  
experts and consequently they could not fulfill "their academic  
duties, including teaching, research and public services."

Arthur Chagaris, an attorney representing Sequoia, could not be  
reached for comment yesterday. Susan Evans, a spokeswoman for the  
secretary of state, which oversees elections, said the Attorney  
General's Office will respond to the ACLU's request before the  
hearing. In previous hearings, the state did not oppose the testing  
conditions set by the judge.

"The purpose of the order handed down by the judge in this case is  
not only in place to protect trade secrets," said Michelle M. Shafer.  
"It is in place to protect the integrity of the judicial process - to  
avoid trying the case in the press."