Lawmaker sues to add paper trail to new voting machines

Sarasota Herald Tribune ^ | March 09. 2004 | AP

[NautiNurse]

More circling of the wagons.

Vote early and often... ;o)

[Servant of the 9]

I hate to say it, but the whiner is right.

A voting system with no paper trail is a prescription for disaster. There is no need to have elections if no one can know who people really voted for.

So9

[cripplecreek]

Personally, i like the idea of a paper trail for my own confidence.

Ideally i would like to see a system where i could get a recipt for my vote that holds a code number so i can check later to see if my vote was counted and counted correctly.

[quantim]

Democratic U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler

Did you hear this howling beast (sounded like Dean) at the Kerry rally?  What a detriment to society.

[17th Miss Regt]

Palm Beach elections supervisor Theresa LePore said the punch card machines also did not allow for a paper receipt where voters could double- check their ballots.

This is about as lame as it is possible to get. A true Democrat. The punch card ballots are paper that you can double check!

[cripplecreek]

i believe Theresa LePore left the democratic party after the 2000 election citing harrassment.

[Let's Roll]

Yep. An auditable (is that a word?) paper trail is a must.

[17th Miss Regt]

She may have left it, but her reasoning shows that it hasn't left her.

[NautiNurse]

I hate to say it, but the whiner is right.

Agreed--a paper trail is crucial. I just don't understand why the whiner didn't make this case in 2002.

[NautiNurse]

Did you hear this howling beast (sounded like Dean) at the Kerry rally?

Fortunately, I missed it. Must have been taking out the trash or something. I'll take your word for it though....

[kevkrom]

Did you hear this howling beast (sounded like Dean) at the Kerry rally? What a detriment to society.

Yeah, but in the "even a broken clock is right once in a while" mode, he is right about paper trails. I'll go one step further and say that the paper trail generated for a specific voter should be visible to that voter before he/she leaves the polling place.

[Semi Civil Servant]

I never thought I'd say this, but I agree with Weasel Wexler. Having no independent paper trail with touch screen voting is an open invitation to wake up some day and discover our new President is Linus Torvald or Bugs Bunny, "elected" by some hacker.

[PBRSTREETGANG]

Obviously he didn't get the DNC memo about who would REALLY be doing the cheating. Nevertheless, I agree with him on this one.

[ItsMyVoteDammit]

It is an embarrassment that Florida has to be sued in order to provide vote security. They should be up front leading the pack demanding a verifiable paper trail. No wonder Pax Christi is sending international monitors in to the "developing nation" of Florida to monitor its elections.

[NautiNurse]

Democratic U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler

and Wexler just made national news...WHY did he wait until election day to do this?

[NautiNurse]

Why do you think Florida is the only state in the Union with this issue?

[quantim]

he is right about paper trails

No argument from me.  With an 'honest' voting regimented system used in places like Florida, Cook County, etc. will only reduce corruption in favor of the good guys.  

[steve50]

I'd think the dems are keying on Florida because it's enough to swing the electorial their way. I think most republicans would take this paperless voting issue a lot more seriously if someone like Soros owned the machines and software.

[rustbucket]

Let me control the proprietary secret software that tabulates the votes, and I control the election outcome.

[ItsMyVoteDammit]

Its not just Florida. All of the states have this issue. California has already been sued and they lost and now are being forced to provide verifiable paper audit trail for votes. But Florida is fighting harder against voter rights. Perhaps the voting machine companies have spread more money around in the state of Florida.