The top election official, Secretary of the Commonwealth Pedro A. Cortés, has directed poll workers to provide paper ballots to a precinct only when all of its touch-screen voting machines are broken.
The lawsuit was filed in Philadelphia by the Pennsylvania N.A.A.C.P.; the Election Reform Network, a nonpartisan group; and a coalition of individual voters. It asks a federal judge to declare Mr. Cortés’s directive unconstitutional on the grounds that it puts an undue burden on residents who may have to wait hours to vote.
Mr. Cortés said that current safeguards should ensure an efficient election and that forcing a change could confuse poll workers who had already been trained.
“It’s going to be busy on Election Day, but I’m confident that we are prepared,” he said. “We hope that the court 12 days before the election doesn’t change the rules.”
Fifty-four of the 67 counties in Pennsylvania use touch-screen machines without paper ballots. According to the lawsuit, 10 percent to 20 percent of the machines will break down on Election Day, based on experience, and 99.4 percent of precincts have three touch-screen machines or fewer.
“If you disenfranchise voters, it’s the No. 1 civil rights issue,” said J. Whyatt Mondesire, president of the Pennsylvania N.A.A.C.P.