W E D N E S D A Y , A U G U S T 1 0 , 2 0 0 5More States Demanding Paper Trail For Votingby Michael in New York on 8/10/2005 01:49:00 PMUSA Today has a story on the growing number of states thatare demanding electronic voting machines provide a paper trailvoters can check themselves. (My state, New York, just passeda law, thank God.</p><p> We're about to replace aging machines.</p><p> Hasyours?) There's a graphic showing which states have laws orare at least considering them.</p><p> Among the nine states thataren't even thinking about this issue: Louisiana, Mississippi andAlabama.</p><p> I suppose they're still reeling from letting blacksvote.Some election experts fear that paper backup recordswill add a layer of complexity to an already delicatesystem.</p><p> That could lead to even worse problems in the2006 elections, such as jammed printers and long votinglines, they say."The unintended consequence of a (paper trail) mandatecould diminish, rather than enhance, voter confidence,"says Conny McCormack, who runs elections in the nation'slargest voting jurisdiction, Los Angeles County."When we start using paper trails in a live election, all ofthese problems are going to become apparent," says LindaLamone, administrator of the Maryland Board of Elections."Problems with paper ballots are going to cause a wholenew cloud over the system."One example already has cropped up.</p><p> In a California testJuly 20 of touch-screen voting machines with add-onprinters, nearly 20% of the machines experiencedproblems, including paper jams and computercrashes.</p><p> The machines were made by Diebold, a leadingmanufacturer of touch-screen computer voting equipment.That's right.</p><p> The experts think attaching a printer to a voting machineis just too darn complicated.</p><p> McCormack groused that she didn't seea lot of voters double-checking the paper printout, forgetting the factthat because they CAN, there's less likelihood of fraud.</p><p> Lamone ofMaryland -- who thinks all-electronic voting is nifty -- worries aboutfights over which record is the "official" one, the electronic record orthe paper record.And paper could be lost! Recounts could take weeks! Yes, imaginetaking ten days to do a manual recount when deciding who yourCongressman or Senator or Governor or President will be.</p><p> Does shehave ADD or something?I say throw out all the machines and use a paper ballot -- lotscheaper and dead-accurate.</p><p> But for God's sake, people, make sureyour check mark is legible.</p><p> And how about passing laws that sayselection supervisors must be non-partisan and unaffiliated with ANYcampaigning by either party? And not a nincompoop, either? 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