ES & S...and V-VPAT new voting machines in our county IS THIS GOOD???

[greenbriar]

New Voting Machines Coming to Sedgwick County

The Election Office has placed an order with Elections Systems and Software (ES&S) for new voting machines to use throughout the County for the 2006 Elections, including the City Elections in Colwich and Garden Plain. The machines feature a touch screen to make easy selections, an audio component for voters with disabilities, and a real time Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (V-VPAT) so voters can not only look at the screen to view their selections, but can also read the audit trail to see that the machine is acknowledging the selections they have made. For more information, click this Voting Machines link.

[Steve A Play]

1. What state do you live in?

A lot depends on how the laws for your area are written.

On Edit: A quick Google search tells me you're in Kansas.

http://www.sedgwickcounty.org/elections/

Here's a link to the Election Division for your County. If you have specific questions you might want to ask them at this link.

[Swamp Rat]

2. Does Senator Chuck Hagel still own shares of ES&S?

[sandnsea]

3. Is the paper the ballot?

We really ought to have paper as the ballot, or a law that says the paper audit trail must be used to verify any recount. Not sure what real good it does otherwise.

[Richard Steele]

4. NO. Not good at all. So far away from "good"...

...that you can't even see it with the naked eye anymore.

[autorank]

5. V_VPAT - yes. Touch screens (of any type) - no.

Paper ballots are only as useful as they are accessible. What happens to them after the election? Locked away under secure seal never to be seen again; or seen and counted only if your state recount criteria has been reached. They should be available for counting and examination by all.

Touch screens are insane. You don't know who you voted for "in the machine" even if it produces a paper ballot that says your candidates name. It's very easy to produce a paper ballot that says Kerry and for the machine to cast a vote for Bush. Crazy huh.

There's a method to the voting machine madness. Just ask yourself WHO BENEFITS?