MSNBC.com
Electronic voting switch threatens mass confusion
By Henry Hamman,Henry Hamman -- Sewanee, Tennessee
Financial Times
Updated: 1:42 a.m. ET May 2, 2006
The last three election cycles in the US have been marked by controversy not only about candidates, but also about the fairness and accuracy of the voting process. And as voters head to the polls today for primaries in some jurisdictions, the coming cycle promises more of the same.
With about 8,000 separate election authorities managing approximately 175,000 polling places and perhaps as many as 150,000 different ballot forms that include choices for everyone from senator to dogcatcher, American elections are complex even when all goes well. But this cycle sees many states and smaller jurisdictions making last-minute efforts to switch to electronic voting, and early signs of trouble are appearing.
<snip>
Last September, the US Government Accountability Office issued a report witha litany of potential flawsin the reliability and sec-urity of electronic voting and warned that steps needed to ensure voter confidence in the integrity of the vote were unlikely to be in place in time for the 2006 election.
<snip>
One problem is that many of the new voting machines that will be deployed are arriving from offshore manufacturing sites - mainly China - and are being rushed into service without adequate quality controls, says Kimball Brace, president of Election Data Services, a voting consultancy firm.
<more at link:>
Copyright The Financial Times Ltd. All rights reserved.
© 2006 MSNBC.com
URL:
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/12584001/
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
