Battle to stop e-voting steps up

[Dover]

Battle to stop e-voting steps up
Roxanne Khamsi

Experts unsure what impact last-minute lawsuits will have.
Many people simply don't trust electronic voting.

© AP Photo/Phil Coale

With the US presidential election less than two weeks away, the battle over electronic voting is raging stronger than ever. Opponents of the technology have resorted to a series of lawsuits in a last-ditch attempt to stop the use of the machines.

The debate centres on the use of electronic voting equipment, ATM-like machines that register votes digitally after people make their selections on a touch-screen. Nearly 30% of voters will place their ballot using these 'e-voting' machines when choosing the next US president.

Many watchdog groups are warning that tests conducted on e-voting hardware and software are insufficient, and that faulty machines could cause votes to be missed or registered incorrectly. It's not yet clear how serious these problems will be; early voting in a dozen or so states so far has thrown up only minor glitches.

However, there is a more fundamental concern about the technology, which is that without a printed confirmation of each vote, it is impossible to hold an independent manual recount.

...cont'd

http://www.nature.com/news/2004/041018/full/041018-16.html

[AmyDeLune]

1. Kick! n/t

[SoCalDem]

2. Amazing, isn't it?? We have been hollering like maniacs for two years

and now that the election is TEN DAYS off, and millions have already absentee/early-voted, people are getting "nervous"..
:grr:

[phylny]

3. It is amazing.

What's even more amazing is that yesterday, I heard a rerun of AAR (Randi Rhodes, I think) while driving around and I'm amazed to hear that Florida has had four years to get it right and STILL hasn't.

I've voted in many states. What's wrong with I've done in a few localities?:

You have a ballot. You have to blacken in an oval for your candidate with the marker they've provided. You can blacken in an all-Democratic ticket, an all-Republican ticket, or individual candidates.

You then feed your ballot into a reader. The reader calculates the votes (much like when you take a standardized test in school, or a Praxis test, or even the SATs) and the scanner tallies the votes.

You have a tally, and a paper trail. Easy enough.