Dangers Of Elec Voting Machines Got Tallied Wed On Capital Hill (Salon)

[kpete]

Taking the paper trail to Washington
The dangers of electronic voting machines got tallied Wednesday on Capitol Hill.

By Michael Scherer
July 20, 2006

WASHINGTON -- White T-shirts are a significant departure from the standard dress code in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill. So when a couple dozen activists walked into a joint meeting of the Science and Administration committees Wednesday wearing bleached cotton instead of the typical pantsuits and striped ties, it was not surprising that someone dispatched a Capitol Police officer to stand guard in case things got out of hand.

The T-shirts were imprinted with bold black letters that read "Got Paper?" or "Got Audits?" -- coded, chest-high messages that were directed at lawmakers to express the widespread concern that new computerized voting machines can be tampered with to swing elections. The activists had come to Washington to push legislation that would mandate voter-verifiable paper records for every ballot cast in the nation, a reversal of a recent trend toward touch-screen computers that only tally votes electronically. It didn't matter that the House committees did not plan to discuss the issue of ballot paper trails. "Hearings are all about theater," explained Susannah Goodman of the liberal election reform group Common Cause, in a pre-hearing meeting with the activists. "We're hijacking it."

As it turned out, the activists' point came across loud and clear to both Republicans and Democrats without hardly a peep from the gallery. The Administration Committee chairman, Vernon J. Ehlers, a Michigan Republican, opened the hearing by addressing the casually dressed crowd in the back of the room. "I notice a number of members in the audience wearing T-shirts showing their support for the paper trial," Ehlers said after his opening statement. "I am trying to arrange a separate hearing on the paper trail." This hearing, he explained, would focus on existing voting machine standards and testing guidelines.

But one by one, Ehlers' Republican and Democratic colleagues disobeyed his instructions by quizzing an all-star panel of election technology experts on the prospect of requiring paper records from every vote cast by computer. "When I had my week off I heard from an overwhelming number of constituents on the paper trail issue," explained California Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald, the joint committee's ranking Democrat. "Voters are very concerned that their vote is not being counted."

more at:
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/07/20/voting/

[Kurovski]

1. K&R. Paper ballots, hand counted.

Forget the machines, even with a paper trail.

The machines are an expensive mistake to everyone but those who wish to steal elections, IMO.