Paperless voting = Dodo (probably)
New York Times: "New federal guidelines, along with legislation given a strong chance to pass in Congress next year, will probably combine to make the paperless voting machines obsolete, the officials say."
All North Carolina counties were required this year to use machines that record a "paper trail" of votes. If you voted in Guilford County, you'll recall the cash-register-style paper roll that printed your votes as you cast them.
These folks should be happy about the paper plan.
Comments (1)
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Thanks Nate.
We really are happy, and feeling somewhat vindicated.
However, we can't rest on our laurels yet, bad ideas for elections keep on coming.
We started warning the State Board of Elections back in 2003, Me, David Allen of High Point, and Richard Stimon (now passed on) of High Point.
I started the NC Coalition for Verified Voting in January of 2004, plenty of time before the next election debacle.
We were treated as conspiracy theorists, and it took the warning to become truth in Nov 2004 when a voting machine in Carteret ate over 4,400 votes and left nothing to show for them, not even a burp.
Well, the loss did create alot of heartburn for the State Board of Elections and the candidates for "Sod God".
Thanks Nate for keeping up with the news on this issue.
New standards will make your brand new touchscreens with the paper "trail" obsolete, and they will be phased out if not banned.
Turns out that optical scan is better.
Oh, we did try to tell the Guilford BOE and County Commissioners that.
But County Commissioners will give millions to the Board of Elections before they will give
millions to the Board of Education.
I hope that Guilford doesn't buy any more touchscreens - given that the paper trail is unreliable and hard to audit or recount.
Other states are learning this the hard way too.
Posted on December 10, 2006 2:11 AM