California to Require Paper Voter Receipt

DDumitru writes "Wired reports that California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley will require all electronic voting systems be equipped with a voter-verifiable paper receipt. This receipt will not be retained by the voter, but deposited at the polls and may be used to audit electronic election results. All new voting system installed after July 1, 2005 must include the new printers. Existing systems, including the systems already installed in four counties must be retrofitted by July 2006. It looks like the public outcry about Diebold and other voting equipment manufacturers has been heard, at least in a very major market for these machines in the US. It should be very difficult for other states to not follow suit."

Comments

2005? 2006?

[Anonymous Coward]

Way to deflect the issue, kids. "yeah yeah, we have to be accountable... but in two years". Too bad they're going to have a little thing like "presidential election" first before all that comes about, huh?

Democracy works?

[Hackie_Chan]

Democracy works?

Priorities

[TheLink]

Yah, it's worth spending billions to remove some dictator in Iraq the US got tired of.

But it sure is not worth spending the resources to get the US elections right.

BTW Saddam was elected too. Probably as legitimately as the USA's next President (and Gov). And maybe even their current one.

I'd have thought the elections would be treated more seriously, given the way the US keeps talking about Democracy, Freedom etc.

Given the bullshit the US spouts, shouldn't it be worse than treason for Diebold to put such crap code in a US voting machine?

And what punishment did they get for such shoddy work?

Better design

[t0ny]

I cant believe nobody used what I thought would be the simplist, best design: Just make a touch-screen that mimics the puchcard method already used. It can accept the paper ballot, you press your votes, it asks you to verify selections at the end, then punches the card for you. No dangling chads, no multiple punches, no problems. Even better, it retains the currently used method of tabulation (the punchcard readers).

The only 'feature' left out of that method would be being able to hack the centralized tabulation machine, so you can make all the voters in Dade county vote for somebody other than the front-running democrat. Oh wait, they dont need a program for that- never mind.