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California Bans Paperless Voting -- For 2006
bizpile writes "Gov. Schwarzenegger signed a law requiring that all electronic voting machines produce paper records of every ballot cast. Under the bill, signed Monday, voters will not be able to touch or keep the records. Instead, election officials will put them in locked boxes if a recount is needed. Legislators in nearly two dozen states have introduced similar bills and New Hampshire, Illinois and Oregon already have laws requiring paper backups. However, those states have few, if any, touch-screen voting terminals. The law goes into effect in 2006. Now if they could just figure what to do this election."
Under the bill, signed Monday, voters will not be able to touch or keep the records.
They'll be able to see them though, right? Right? Otherwise, what stops an incorrect electronic vote being backed up by an incorrect paper vote?
Instead, election officials will put them in locked boxes if a recount is needed.
So who decides when a recount is needed? If a voting machine screws up 10% of the time and the winning margin is 5%, how will that be picked up against the assumed scenario of a voting machine working correctly and the winning margin being 5% to a different candidate? If an outcome is so obviously false (e.g. twice as many votes as voters), then the paper trail isn't necessary, and if the paper trail is followed for every election, there is no benefit over normal paper voting.
Of course, everyone advocating for pen + paper voting in the first place (of which I am usually one) will point out, "yes, we've been saying this for years", it just seems that it's so completely and utterly without merit that I must be missing something obvious.
Ah, we love to call him the Governator, and it makes it all the better when he actually does a good job.
Fellowship 9/11
Yes, you can see the paper and confirm every vote. Most proposals put it "behind a sheet of glass" so you can't lay mitts on it and walk away with it, but that's OK as the voting machine has a "wait, hold it, I did NOT vote for THAT asshole!" button allowing you to restart (and that piece of paper is cancelled).
Other lower-cost alternatives involve a large sheet of paper people are less likely to walk away with; they'll stuff the sheets in a ballot box. Problem is, some people WILL be dumb and carry the paper off, meaning their vote can't be hand-counted and they can prove how they voted (selling their vote, etc).
"Behind glass" is preferable.
One thing though: the printer has to have an automated "cutter" or otherwise drop individual sheets to the bottom of the bucket rather than use a take-up reel on a paper spool. A take-up reel gives you the vote order; cross-ref against the sign-in list and you can strip the privacy of who voted for what.