Culver signs law banning touchscreen voting machines

[kster]

by: desmoinesdem
Wed Apr 02, 2008 at 19:39:43 PM CDT

Governor Chet Culver on Tuesday signed into law Senate File 2347, which requires all Iowa counties to use optical scan voting machines and paper ballots.
The state will spend an estimated $4.6 million to replace touchscreen voting machines in 19 counties that have been using them.

It's a relief that all 99 counties will be using similar voting equipment, which is less vulnerable to tampering than touchscreen machines and allows for hand and machine recounts in the event of a close election.

The Des Moines Register quoted Sean Flaherty of Iowans for Voting Integrity as saying voters will also save time in the counties that are replacing the paperless machines. Voting by touchscreen takes longer and leads to bigger backlogs at polling stations.

A lot of credit goes to Secretary of State Mike Mauro, who showed leadership on this issue despite the governor's early objections to the cost of the plan and complaints by some officials in the counties that had purchased touchscreen machines.

http://www.bleedingheartland.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1178





Now take charge of them Paper Ballots like you own them, BECAUSE YOU DO!!!

[Eric J in MN]

1. We also use optical-scan paper ballots throughout Minnesota.

Have for a long time.

[southerncrone]

2. Good for him.

You're lucky Iowa to have this. Here in TN we only have 2 of our 95 counties currently with paper trails (one of those is the last populated county in the state!).

However, there is talk of getting grants to replace the others. Probably won't happen b/4 Nov. '08 tho :( & I'm convinced EVERYTHING hinges on this '08 election. Like the survival of our democracy.

[Wilms]

3. I wish they'd spend that $4.2M hand counting.

But it's still good news.

[cascadiance]

4. I'm betting U of Iowa prof. Doug Jones had a lot to do with this!

Doug's a good man and has been very active in this area. He was the technical consultant they used for the film "Hacking Democracy" earlier and was mentioned here when this bill passed.

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2793&Itemid=113