Survey: People want receipt showing how they voted

Friday, Nov. 12, 2004 | 9:10 a.m.

An Election Day poll in Las Vegas indicated that 81 percent of voters surveyed want to take home a private "ATM style" receipt to verify for themselves their vote was counted correctly, a consulting group said Wednesday.

Lombardo Consulting Group said it surveyed 362 voters in conjunction with political science professor Michael John Burton of Ohio University.

Given a choice between leaving a voter-verified paper ballot at the polling place or taking home a receipt, 60 percent of those asked said they preferred take-home receipts and self-verification, and 36 percent said they preferred the idea of leaving a paper ballot with election officials.

Nevada Secretary of State Dean Heller, the man responsible for overseeing elections throughout the state, opposes giving voters a printed receipt, however. He said that while it may sound like a good idea, it could lead to many problems.

An employer could require a worker to show his receipt to prove he voted a certain way, or the worker could be subject to loss of his job if he didn't follow the wishes of the employer, Heller said. Unions could require a member to verify he voted a certain way in order to keep his membership, said Heller.

Any of those actions would be illegal, however. Heller also said the printed receipts could lead to electioneering problems. He referred to a ruling from his office that a casino could not give free meals to customers who showed records that they had cast their ballots. None of the problems he cited would be caused by voters themselves, however.

Nevada was the only state to use "statewide" voter-verified paper ballot printers attached to electronic voting machines on Election Day.

In a press release, Burton said that "many voters thought a private receipt that they could take home would be the best way to know if their vote was counted correctly. People are used to getting receipts from ATMs or gas stations -- and they liked the idea of getting a receipt from the voting booth."

During the election in Nevada, voters were instructed by poll workers to compare their vote selections on the electronic screen with what was printed on the voter verified paper ballot scroll. The paper ballot scrolls were retained by election officials for use in post-election audits or recounts.

The survey also examined voter interaction with Nevada's voter-verified paper ballot machines and found that only 31 percent of the voters actually compared the entire paper ballot to the machine ballot in order to ensure their vote was recorded accurately.

Lombardo Consulting Group is a corporate and political public opinion research firm with offices in Washington, D.C., and New York City.

Complete survey results can be found at http://www.lombardo consulting group.com /docs/ nvvotersurvey.pdf