WI Assembly OKs Voting Paper Trail

AdamBLang writes "Madison Wisconsin's Capitol Times reports 'With only four dissenting votes, the state Assembly easily passed a bill that would require that electronic voting machines create a paper record. The goal of the legislation is to make sure that Wisconsin's soon-to-be-purchased touch screen machines create a paper ballot that can be audited to verify election results.' Slashdot has previously reported on this bill." More from the article: "Wisconsin cannot go down the path of states like Florida and Ohio in having elections that the public simply doesn't trust ... By requiring a paper record on every electronic voting machine, we will ensure that not only does your vote matter in Wisconsin, but it also counts."

Comments

Good idea but....

[Anonymous Coward]

Unfortunantly, this paper trail will still record your multiple votes if you live in Milwaukee.

Also good for error checking?

[Deathbane27]

I assume that after the vote is cast, the voter can view the receipt. That way they can make sure their vote registered (no more dimple or chad issues). Also, if there's a discrepency between what you actually voted and what the receipt says, you can take it to the election judge.

Re:Also good for error checking?

[CosmeticLobotamy]

Where I'm from, they get signatures from everyone voting in a book. If the signature count doesn't match the total votes, something's gone wrong. So at least automated fraud is trickier. The people running it could still sign in for people that didn't show up and vote for them, but no more so with an electronic system than an manual one.

Re:Ohio?

[stinerman]

I asked a poll worker how everything worked and he explained how it was all "triple redundant" and that "my vote would count this time". Other than that, I couldn't get much more out of him as he was busy. I'd like to know what role the paper copy plays in the official results. If the paper copies are only used in recounts, then all a crafty attacker would have to do is make sure he altered the votes enough that any recount would not need to be triggered.

Issues 2-5 went down hard when there were some polls that showed them ahead a few days before the election. I'm a bit suspicious when I hear issue 2 is going to pass 60/40 and it gets shut down 35/65 (or something similar).

Re:Now If Only..

[Krimszon]

Do I understand this correctly: After three years of fighting terror, US citizens are not required to have or carry photo id? So how do these people get anything done, like open a bank account, get membership at a video rental place, or vote?

Why paper trails are necessary

[smooth wombat]

As if to show why a paper trail is necessary for voting, this past election day in a County near me a district had an issue where the electronic machines were incorrectly coded for one area. This link is the only one I could find quickly but it has all the information.

When the original count was done the results showed that the Republican candidate had won by a 173 vote margin. However, someone noticed that the Republican candiate was coming in as a Democrat in this one district so anyone who voted a straight-party democratic ticket was inadvertently casting votes for the Republican candidate.

A hand recount was ordered and after the recount it was found that the Republican candidate had a 2 vote margin (not in the article but the local news has stated this). This isn't the end though. The provisional ballots still have to be counted.

Maybe in the end the Republican candidate will still win but had a paper trail not been available, and someone sharp enough to notice the discrepancy, a recount would have been nearly impossible using only the computerized records.

Mexican elections pre 2000

[Flying pig]

I had the misfortune to visit Saltillo at election time, some years ago. I was amazed at how jumpy the atmosphere was, knowing as I did nothing about the country. There was the episode when we had lunch in a restaurant where it turned out three opposition politicians were having lunch, and the people with me were debating whether we should leave in case the goons waiting outside thought they might be talking to the opposition, or stay and pretend not to notice them (we stayed). The most paranoid moment was when I was leaving and saying goodbye to my hosts. We were standing under one of the twenty foot high posters of the "progressive party" which were all over town (the opposition wrote on the walls and the goons came out every morning and removed the writing. Without thinking I said "..adios (name of PP politician)", ironically saluting the poster. There was immediately a discussion as to whether it was now too dangerous for me to take a taxi to the airport and whether I would have an "accident" on the way. In fact I just had the usual accident- the taxi was two hours late but the plane was the normal five hours late and I had to spend the night in Houston. And my company was advised politely never to send me back to Mexico, which was no hardship.

Conclusion? Mexico seems to have been slowly and steadily improving as some adjacent parts of the US seem to have been steadily going downhill, electorally.