Critics cite voting machine errors for election woes

[Kelvin Mace]

(Note to mods: The online version of this story was just posted this morning, though it is a Sunday story.)

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=13950600&BRD=1332&PAG=461&dept_id=414366&rfi=8&xb=kumut

Some election officials leading up to the Nov. 2 general election dismissed the critics as alarmist or misguided, saying that electronic voting machine technology would ensure a verified vote.

Instead, North Carolina became the national poster child this election season for a voting machine fiasco.

The meltdown in Carteret County, where votes were lost without any hope of retrieving the ballots, "is the kind of problem we worried about with electronic touch-screen voting. If the memory and software fails, there's no record," said Allen, a publisher and author from High Point who's a member of the Joint Select Committee on Electronic Voting Systems.

The recommendations include that every vote cast in North Carolina should generate a paper ballot as a backup starting next year. The committee also recommends allowing state officials to inspect the computer code of electronic machines for potential pitfalls, regardless of proprietary business concerns.

[Riding this Donkey]

1. I hope the rest of the State's with voting machine fiasco's have

the balls to come forward and tell the truth. The American people deserve federally regulated voting for our federal positions. Time to stop letting every state and/or county have their own so called rules in federal elections.

[AnneD]

2. Day late and a dollar short for 2004

I'm sure there will be no money in the budget to correct the situation.......

[Kelvin Mace]

3. We tried to get this done in the Summer

but the issue was tabled. They hoped it would just go away.

As to the budget, most of the money will come HAVA money already available.

The trick will be keeping the bill intact from hostile vendors and election officials who do NOT like being wrong.

David Allen
www.blackboxvoting.com
www.thoughtcrimes.org