N.J. voting machines vulnerable, groups tell judges

The state’s voting machines are so vulnerable to tampering and error that it’s impossible to tell whether ballots are counted properly, a coalition of civil rights groups told an appellate panel Tuesday in a long-running case that has drawn national attention from computer security experts and voting officials.

The three judges must decide whether to order the state to replace tens of thousands of electronic voting machines with newer technology designed to be more secure.

The problem, advocates say, isn’t just theoretical: Voting machine irregularities caused a Superior Court judge to throw out a South Jersey election in 2011. Critics say it’s impossible to determine whether that was an isolated incident.

“The citizens of New Jersey are still voting on machines that can be tampered with and can lose votes,” argued Penny M. Venetis, co-director of the Rutgers University School of Law’s constitutional litigation clinic, who brought the suit eight years ago.

She argued that New Jersey’s voting machines are so insecure they violate residents’ constitutional rights, and she wants the courts to order the state to upgrade to technology that provides voters with a paper record of their ballots.

The state does a better job, Princeton University computer security expert Andrew Appel has said, of securing slot machines in Atlantic City — which are subjected to exhaustive hardware and software tests by the Division of Gaming before they ever hit the casino floor.

At a trail on the lawsuit, took Appel hacked into a New Jersey voting machine in 42 minutes.

Yet Assistant Attorney General Donna Kelly called the machines “time-tested” and said the courts should give the state “broad leeway” in deciding which voting machines to use. She said several other courts have approved similar voting machines and that opponents were relying on hypothetical scenarios because they can’t find examples of widespread machine malfunctions in New Jersey.

“Let’s try to manufacture a problem,” Kelly said, describing her opponents’ strategy. “Let’s get into hypotheticals.”

All but three of New Jersey’s 21 counties use the same machines, manufactured by Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems. They were purchased to help the state comply with a series of federal mandates to upgrade voting technology in the wake of widespread voting problems in Florida in the 2000 presidential election.