Voting Machines Banned by Dutch Minister
5heep writes "Dutch Government Renewal Minister Atzo Nicolai has banned the use of one type of computer voting machine in national elections next month. The turnabout came after a group called We Don't Trust Voting Computers protested the vulnerability of electronic voting to fraud or manipulation. The reason for this ban is the radio signals emitted by the machines which can be used to peek at a voters' choice from several dozen meters away."
Paper ballots... you can count them... You can check them, you can verify them.
Have you ever read your history? The Democrat bosses in the Kansas City Organization, Chicago, and elsewhere voted multiple times, stuffed ballot boxes, etc. Do you even remember the whole chad debacle? I'm not just pointing fingers at the Democrats; they're just the first historical example to come to mind.
Paper ballots are not some magical shield against cheating and I wish proponents wouldn't chant "paper ballots" like it would solve everything. You either have a human point of failure counting the ballots, or an e-machine doing the vote tallies from a paper source which doesn't gain you much. Recounts can be tampered with too.
The problem with paperless voting machines is that fewer people can possibly commit fraud with a finer degree of control. So demand a better machine or a better system. But don't give me a cry for "paper ballots" like they will solve problems by themselves.