Boston Globe: "Many states turning to paper ballots for fall"

[Glenda]

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/06/17/many_states_turning_to_paper_ballots_for_fall/

Many states turning to paper ballots for fall
Use nearly doubles since 2000 uproar
By Brian C. Mooney
Globe Staff / June 17, 2008

Florida's election fiasco in 2000 prompted many states to adopt electronic touch-screen voting systems, but after a spate of malfunctions and meltdowns in 2004 and 2006, paper ballots are making a big comeback.

At least 55 percent of American voters this fall will mark their choice for president on paper ballots that will then be read and tabulated by optical scanning devices - nearly double the percentage in 2000, according to Virginia-based Election Data Services, a consulting firm that has been tracking voting technology since 1980.
...

Since the Florida recount tipped the Electoral College to George W. Bush in 2000, that state has changed its voting methods twice. First it dumped punch cards after the embarrassment of hanging chads and dimpled ballots eight years ago, which caused votes to go uncounted and created doubt about many voters' choices.

After a series of highly publicized errors with computerized touch-screen equipment in 2004 and 2006 in some of the state's most populous counties, Governor Charlie Crist and the Legislature last year mandated optically scanned paper ballots in all 66 counties. The final blow came in 2006 when touch-screen machines in Sarasota County recorded an anomalous 17,846 "undervotes," or blanks, a rate of almost 15 percent, in a congressional election decided by 369 votes. State and federal reviews failed to explain the phenomenon.


...

In 2004, Ohio became the new Florida, plagued by irregularities and charges of partisanship against the Republican secretary of state at the time, J. Kenneth Blackwell, a cochairman of the Bush campaign in a state the president carried by fewer than 119,000 votes out of 5.6 million cast. Since 2004, when many Ohio counties still used punchcard ballots, the state has moved to other technologies - 35 counties use optical-scan paper ballots and 53 counties employ touch screens backed by what is known as a voter-verified paper audit trail.

Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, succeeded Blackwell in 2006, and initiated a $1.8 million study that identified problems with the state's voting system. Partisanship, however, still permeates the politics of election management in the Buckeye State. The Republican-controlled state Legislature and Brunner have been at odds over voting technology and funding issues. In December, Brunner broke a party-line tie vote of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections after Republican members opposed her move to discard the county's perennially troubled touch screen machines in favor of optical scan paper ballots.

[annabanana]

1. Ok.. Phase one is doing well... NOW we have to get private,

proprietary software out of the tabulators.. That's the opti-scanners AND the central tabulators.

There is NO REASON for secret code to be in the machinery in a PUBLIC event like an election.

[flashl]

2. In 2004, voters stood in lines for more than 13hrs to vote, wonder how long will it be this time? nt

[reprehensor]

3. Good.

Rage against the machines.

[whistle]

4. This is a good thing

[mod mom]

5. Yes BUT only if there is strict integrity in the chain of custody, counting @ precinct level

w full public witness is also highly advised.