BBV: three major newspapers have endorsed a paper trail. [View All]

[Eric J in MN]

The NY TIMES, LA TIMES, and WASHINGTON POST have all endorsed a voter-verified paper trail in editorials (not op-eds only, but editorials).

If you haven't emailed your Congressperson yet, or want to send your Congressperson a reminder, please click on the link in my signature (bottom of this post).


Washington Post editorial:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20340-2003Dec21.html
Maryland ought to be able to negotiate a fair price for the cost of adding printers, and paper records ought to be a requirement, regardless of which company does the job. In California, the secretary of state has announced that all electronic voting machines must include paper printouts by 2006. Maryland Del. Karen S. Montgomery (D-Montgomery) has drafted legislation that would require voter-verified paper records. Voters would be allowed to correct errors they find on the printouts of their votes. The bill also would require random checks of the paper records in 2 percent of election precincts against the computer records, to search for possible tampering.

Before committing itself to a suspect system, Maryland at the least should insist on the kinds of protection sought by Ms.Montgomery. Mr. Ehrlich should join in putting these safeguards on the books and in conducting a further review of the arrangement with Diebold.