Candidate skeptical about electronic voting machines

[struggle4progress]

Posted on Fri, Aug. 06, 2004
DALE WETZEL
Associated Press

BISMARCK, N.D. - North Dakota should avoid installing "touch-screen" electronic voting machines at the polls, unless they provide paper confirmation of how each person voted, the Democratic candidate for secretary of state believes.

Some state and local jurisdictions have had difficulties with the machines, which record votes electronically and do not use paper ballots. They are designed to be used by people with disabilities, who may have difficulty marking ballots by hand.

Doug Melby, who is opposing Republican Secretary of State Al Jaeger's re-election bid, said he has heard considerable skepticism from North Dakotans about whether the machines' results are reliable.

"Even if the technology were perfect, if people don't trust it - they're the ones who are voting. They're the ones who have to live with the outcome," Melby said. "If they don't believe that the election was conducted fairly, you've got a big problem right there with credibility."
<snip>

http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/news/state/9340065.htm

[struggle4progress]

1. Republican U.S. Senate Candidate Larry Klayman ... Calls for Paper Backup

Republican U.S. Senate Candidate Larry Klayman to Hold Press Conference; Calls for Paper Backup for Florida Electronic Voting
Press conference details:
WHEN: Tuesday, August 3, at 9 a.m.

<snip>
Florida Republican Senate candidate Larry Klayman is urging the State of Florida to provide for paper backups to computerized voting machines for the Senatorial and other primary elections on August 31, and for the general election. Klayman cites still lingering concerns from the 2002 Election over Florida's new electronic voting systems, as recently evidenced by erased electronic ballots in Miami-Dade County. He also points to primary elections in Georgia where the electronic ballots omitted candidates from the ballot and had some candidates listed as both Republican and Democrat on the ballot.

Klayman, the former Chairman of Judicial Watch, was the first to spearhead the effort to open the ballots after the 2000 Presidential Election and then commissioned an independent audit that confirmed President Bush's election victory.

Klayman believes that by providing for paper backups, electronic voting can easily be checked and verified. The electoral process will be safeguarded against attempts at vote fraud. Because Klayman himself is a non-establishment candidate, he is particularly concerned that a backup system be implemented in time for the primary elections.
<snip>

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=116-08022004

Opposing BBV is common sense ...