Ralph Neas: Time for Congress to Move on the Holt Bill (Voting Reform)

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Ralph Neas (for HuffPost)


03.27.2007
Time for Congress to Move on the Holt Bill (3 comments )

Nothing less than the integrity of the 2008 elections is at stake

Are you one of the tens of millions of Americans whose voting precincts use paperless touch-screen voting machines? Then your vote is at risk--unless Congress moves quickly to avert a potential catastrophe before the 2008 presidential election.

Paperless touch-screen voting machines led to all sorts of problems in 2006.

In Williamson County, Texas, some machines recorded three votes for every vote cast. Throughout Pennsylvania, there were reports of "vote flipping," where machines added votes to one candidate's tally even though they were cast for a different candidate. And in a mayor's race in a small town in Arkansas, voting machine totals had one candidate with zero votes, even though he voted for himself and his wife did too. The problem you've most likely heard about--because it almost certainly changed the outcome of an election--was in Sarasota County, Florida, where more than 18,000 votes disappeared on touch-screen machines in a congressional race.

None of the touch-screen machines involved in these cases produced a paper record of the votes that had been cast. This meant that voters had no way to verify that machines accurately recorded their votes. It also meant that when problems became apparent, election officials could not rely on a paper record outside of the machines for a recount. They were forced to accept the vote totals the machines produced--even when it was clear that those totals were flawed. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ralph-neas/time-for-congress-to-move_b_44366.html