Security keys for some Baltimore voting machines were not returned to election officials as required when the polls closed Nov. 8, leaving about a dozen of the city's nearly 1,200 machines vulnerable to tampering, an investigation by The Sun has found.
The keys -- used to lock machines shut and prevent any manipulation of the vote tally -- were improperly left on top of machines or in their locks when the equipment was returned to a city warehouse, according to some election officials and other workers familiar with the warehouse operation.
Under strict procedures set up to protect the machine vote, election judges in city polling places are supposed to lock the machines, then seal all keys in envelopes and return them to election board headquarters on election night.
In interviews with The Sun, none of the individuals who saw keys on or in voting machines after the polls closed alleged that the keys were used to cast fraudulent votes. If there were any tampering as a result of the mishandled keys, it would be detected easily unless masked by a fairly elaborate scheme in which voter authority cards also were signed for each fraudulent vote cast and the names checked off lists in city precinct binders.
At best, the misplaced keys are an indication of sloppy election management, experts say. At worst, the handling of the keys leaves the city's election count open to question and bolsters suspicions of fraud -- particularly among Republicans challenging the results of the governor's race.
"In the minds of voters . . . it compromises the integrity of the election," said Penelope Bonfall, director of the nonpartisan National Clearinghouse on Election Administration, an arm of the Federal Election Commission.
"It appears that there was mismanagement and unclear communications about the importance of the keys," said Ms. Bonfall, who has worked in election administration for more than 20 years. "Those keys are one of the ways that your machines become vulnerable."
Attorneys for Republican Ellen R. Sauerbrey, who lost the governor's race to Democrat Parris N. Glendening by 5,993 votes, are likely to use the issue of the misplaced keys in the trial of their lawsuit, which begins today.
The lawsuit, filed Dec. 27, cites the "improper possession and disposition of [city voting machine] keys" as one reason for overturning the November election.
"The statutory protections for the machines require a separation of the keys from the machines to ensure that no tampering occurs," said John M. Carbone, a New Jersey lawyer and election specialist who is heading Mrs. Sauerbrey's legal team. "Given the opportunity for tampering and the motivations of some people, one can never be sure what occurred."
Deputy Attorney General Ralph S. Tyler III, who is representing city and state election officials in the suit, conceded that there was "room for improvement" in the city's handling of the keys.
"The bottom line here is that there is no evidence that the integrity of the process or the election . . . was compromised," he said.
The mishandled keys were revealed in interviews by The Sun with workers at Guardian Moving & Storage Co., a South Baltimore hauler that has the contract for dropping off and picking up Baltimore's voting machines.
In separate interviews, two of the company's 24 workers on the election detail said they found a set of keys atop voting machines at different city polling places. A colleague who asked not to be identified said he saw "at least 10 machines" with keys in them.
Tracy E. Campbell, a Guardian driver for nearly four years, said he found one set of keys atop one voting machine, but could no longer recall the location. Michael C. Forney, a Guardian warehouseman who worked on a truck for the election moves, said he "found two keys on one of the machines" -- a different machine than the one handled by Mr. Campbell's crew.
"The set that I found wasn't in an envelope," he said. "I just dropped them down the side of the machine. They're probably still there."
The third worker, who also has transported machines in several previous elections, said this time he saw "at least 10 machines" that were returned to the warehouse with the keys still in them. "This year is the first time I saw any keys in the machines," he said.
Two city election board workers at the North Franklintown Road warehouse where the machines are stored also confirmed seeing some with keys in them. One asked not to be identified. The other, James J. Cawley, who worked at the warehouse until quitting in December, acknowledged seeing "two or three" machines returned with keys in them.
Stressing the internal safeguards of the machines -- widely acknowledged as difficult to breach -- Mr. Cawley said he believed that the keys were mistakenly jammed in the locks by election judges and could not be removed.
Barbara E. Jackson, the city elections administrator, said she did not know of any keys being found in or atop machines. Ms. Jackson did say she was told by her staff that "no more than two dozen" sets of keys were not returned election night because they were mistakenly picked up by police officers and kept overnight. All were returned the next day, she said.
Although officers at one time returned the keys, they have not done so in the last two election cycles -- an effort to cut down on costs and keep more officers on patrol. Ms. Jackson said she assumed that some officers, accustomed to the old procedures, apparently did not get the word that election judges were to return the keys this time.
But Baltimore Police Lt. Ben Lieu, who oversaw the department's citywide Election Day detail, said he had not heard that officers picked up -- or kept -- machine keys.
"I find it far-fetched that the officers would keep [a key,]" Lieutenant Lieu said. "I wasn't aware of any mass key turn-in."
Donald L. Hosier, for 29 years a voting machine technician with Sequoia Pacific Voting Equipment Inc., the corporate successor to the machines' manufacturer, explained why the keys are important.
Once a machine is locked and separated from its keys, there is no way to alter the machine's vote tally, Mr. Hosier said. But if the keys remain with the machine, someone could reopen it and "vote all night long," he said.
"That's why they have that envelope to send the key back," Mr. Hosier said. "That's the safety feature of it."
Because of poor record-keeping by city election officials, it is impossible to determine which city polling places failed to return keys on election night. Election board officials do not keep an accounting of the keys as they are turned in, Ms. Jackson said.
One should be able to inspect the numbered envelopes in which the keys were supposed to be sealed by election judges when the polls closed at 8 p.m. But city election officials say that all but 300 of the nearly 1,200 envelopes were thrown away in the days after the election.
VOTING MACHINE SECURITY
Each Automatic Voting Machine in Baltimore has four keys -- the No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4 keys, and the "O Key" -- each of which has a different function related to security of the machine.
The No. 2 and No. 3 keys -- which are on the same key ring -- are delivered in a sealed envelope to election judges at each polling place by police officers on the morning of the election. When the polls close and the machine is shut down and sealed with a numbered metal band, the keys are placed in an envelope and sealed. Election judges are supposed to return the keys to the election board downtown that night.
The No. 2 Key activates the machine to allow voting and shuts it down. Once the key is turned down, no more votes can be cast without releasing an "after-election latch" -- a mechanism found behind a locked rear door that is supposed to be accessible only to the machine mechanic (custodian).
The No. 3 Key opens the front of the machine, where votes are cast behind the privacy curtains. It also opens a lock on the back of the machine that allows election officials to access two of the three compartments there. The middle compartment contains counters on which votes for each candidate are registered, as well as the paper sheets known as "print packs" on which the tallies are printed. The door to the top compartment allows access to the write-in votes and to a locked box containing the No. 4 key.
The No. 4 Key -- to be used only by the mechanic or custodian -- opens a third rear compartment that houses the most sensitive equipment on the machine. Although the machine is equipped with security safeguards that are difficult to breach, the No. 4 Key offers full access to the machine, leaving it vulnerable to tampering, should it fall into the wrong hands. For that reason, in the past, police officers only held the keys on election day. Even mechanics responding to trouble calls had to sign for the key to work on the machine. This year, however, the No. 4 Key was placed in a locked box in the top rear compartment of the machine and mechanics were given keys to that box -- an effort to reduce the involvement of police officers.
The so-called "O Key," which is on the same ring as the No. 4 Key, is used by mechanics after the election to reset machine counters.