Rather than recommend a wholesale ban of touchscreen voting machines in November, a California panel has proposed a freeze on new equipment unless it produces a voter-verified paper audit trail, accelerating the due date for this technology from 2006 to 2004.
At least 20 states have introduced legislation requiring a paper audit trail. Oregon, New Hampshire and Illinois already require this accountability; Missouri and Nevada will require it by 2006. Secretaries of state in Washington and West Virginia are also calling for paper trails.
Panelist John Mott-Smith, California elections division chief, said:
It’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when. …it confuses me the extent of the reaction against paper. It is now in the public radar, and it is not going off the public radar.
I just had my first brush with an advocacy site positioning itself as an honest news source … when its “news” was so dishonest I did a double-take. I thought I was more worldly.
