Paper-Based Voting Is Making a Comeback, Company Says

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http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=news-000002976346

Paper-Based Voting Is Making a Comeback, Company Says
By Seth Stern, CQ Staff


Fewer voters this November will be using electronic voting machines than in 2004, part of a national swing back toward paper-based voting, according to a report released Friday by Electronic Data Services.

This year, 59 percent of voters will cast their ballots using optical scan voting systems, akin to the readers used to score high school multiple choice tests, up from 50 percent in 2004, reports Election Data Services, a Virginia-based consulting company which surveys jurisdictions around the country every two years prior to Election Day.

Another 33 percent will use electronic voting, down from 38 percent in 2004, the company said.

This is the first time that fewer Americans will vote electronically than during the last election, after three decades of growth in electronic voting. Jurisdictions throughout the country increasingly adopted electronic voting, after the 2000 election highlighted problems about the reliability of paper ballots, most famously symbolized by “hanging chads” in Florida.

But the ardor for electronic voting has cooled more recently amid concerns about the security and reliability of electronic voting. Eighty-six counties across the country have changed their voting technology since 2006; all of them have begun employing paper ballots and optical scan machines.

In all, 40 percent of registered voters will use a new voting system compared to 2004, Election Data Services said.

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