Touch Screen Voting Problems

Critics warn of post-election problems if no paper trail exists

The Venezuelan vote was conducted using electronic voting machines that generate a voter-verified paper trail. Chavez's opposition claimed that the victory, in which 59 percent voted to keep Chavez in power, was rigged. But international election monitors were able to conduct an audit by comparing the paper record to the electronic vote tallies. "Without a paper trail to audit, there would have been no way to reach any closure on this situation," said one American observer on the scene in Caracas, Venezuela's capital. "There would be no paper trail, and you would be left with the assertion that some kind of manipulation happened. You have a safe bet that something like that is going to happen in November" in the United States.

Check out the section of this site dedicated to electronic voting. Watch the segment the Daily Show did a while back which I was able to capture (Windows Media). Did you know Diebold makes a lot of commercial ATM machines? Notice how those can keep accurate track of our money, are virtually unhackable and spit out receipts left and right, but their voting machines can't. Interesting.