I have to ask myself, “self… what is so wrong with paper ballots that no one seems to want to use them anymore?” and the only answer I can come up with is, “self…paper ballots make it too hard to rig an election, so that is why we use crappy electronic voting machines.” Oh OK.

Once again places like Ohio and Florida are experiencing voting problems due to crappy electronic voting machines.

from here.

Debra A. Reed voted with her boss on Wednesday at African-American Research Library and Cultural Center near Fort Lauderdale. Her vote went smoothly, but boss Gary Rudolf called her over to look at what was happening on his machine. He touched the screen for gubernatorial candidate Jim Davis, a Democrat, but the review screen repeatedly registered the Republican, Charlie Crist.

That’s exactly the kind of problem that sends conspiracy theorists into high gear — especially in South Florida, where a history of problems at the polls have made voters particularly skittish.

A poll worker then helped Rudolf, but it took three tries to get it right, Reed said.

”I’m shocked because I really want . . . to trust that the issues with irregularities with voting machines have been resolved,” said Reed, a paralegal. “It worries me because the races are so close.”

…

Joan Marek, 60, a Democrat from Hollywood, was also stunned to see Charlie Crist on her ballot review page after voting on Thursday. ”Am I on the voting screen again?” she wondered. “Well, this is too weird.”

Marek corrected her ballot and alerted poll workers at the Hollywood satellite courthouse, who she said told her they’d had previous problems with the same machine.

Poll workers did some work on her machine when she finished voting, Marek said. But no report was made to the Supervisor of Elections office and the machine was not removed, Cooney said.

…

Mauricio Raponi wanted to vote for Democrats across the board at the Lemon City Library in Miami on Thursday. But each time he hit the button next to the candidate, the Republican choice showed up. Raponi, 53, persevered until the machine worked. Then he alerted a poll worker.

Electronic voting has the potential to be a really good system. However it seems the machines are designed to fail.

1. They use crappy touch screens that can get out of sync (by accident or perhaps not…)
2. They do not print out a paper receipt and as such produce no hard copy of the vote
3. They have laughable security and have been shown in many cases easily hacked
4. The final vote counts are not secure and can be altered with ease

If people do not want the air of conspiracy to surround the voting process then all they have to do is make it bone simple.

1. Have a machine with BUTTONS on it. Much like the ATM you visit all the time.
2. Have these buttons separated with dividers so you know exactly which button lines up with each candidate choice.
3. Make the machine keep track of the votes both electronically and on paper.
4. Print out a paper check sheet for the voter to look over BEFORE they finalize the vote.
5. Have the machine print out two receipts after they have voted to compare to the check sheet.
6. Keep one copy of the receipt at the polling station, if a recount needs to be done use the receipts NOT the electronic count.

These are but a few of the many common sense answered to making electronic voting more secure. If this election turns into another round of “amazing comebacks” I feel the American people have no choice but to demand full and open voting systems that are much closer to perfect than we have currently. If we can spent several hundred billion dollars to spread democracy in Iraq, we should have no problem spending some cash to make sure our own voting systems are well maintained at home.

Nov 7th is election day GET OUT AND VOTE. Don’t let them scare you into staying home. Do your best to make sure your vote is counted. The only way to make the system better is to participate in it. And after, if you feel your vote was not counted properly, raise as big a stink as possible. Continue to raise hell until your demands are met. Action and participation are the cures for what ails this country.