What Technology Is Used In American Voting?

MonopolyM asks: "My question to the /. community is something I have been pondering for awhile. Unless you've crawled under a large rock lately you know Tuesday is election day. With this said, some voting Americans will cast their vote using a computer system. News reporters report results all day from these votes, and real-time data is fed back after the polls close. My question is simple. What hardware, software, OS, etc -- runs the voting system - and how are the voting results "securely" sent to the media? Is this information restricted? If not, what system runs the most important day in our nation for the next four years?" I've tried to shy away from election questions but this one is definitely worthy for some attention. What technology do we use to handle election day results, and can such systems be improved upon?