State Tells Counties to Establish Paper Trail on Electronic Voting (CA/BBV [View All]

[Bushfire]

By Allison Hoffman and Tim Reiterman, Times Staff Writers

Secretary of State Kevin Shelley is expected to announce today that as of 2006, all electronic voting machines in California must be able to produce a paper printout that voters can check to make sure their votes are properly recorded.

Late Thursday evening, Shelley placed calls to county elections officials around the state to tell them that any voting system that is currently in use or that is purchased before Jan. 1, 2006, must be modified or replaced to produce a paper trail. After that date, no county will be allowed to buy machines that can't make printouts.

None of the electronic voting systems currently in use in the state can make such a record. Voters who cast ballots using touch-screens, the most common type of electronic voting machine, are prompted to review their choices on a confirmation screen, but they have no way of knowing that those selections are recorded correctly in the microchip "ballot box."

Voter registrars around the state reacted with surprise and anger to the news.

"I am shocked," said Mischelle Townsend, Riverside County's registrar and a member of the task force Shelley convened last summer to discuss electronic voting. "You're talking about millions of dollars of added expense at a time when we have a fiscal crisis."

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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-shelley21nov21,1,847438.story?coll=la-headlines-california

Hey Mischelle Townsend, Tough Bananas!!!!!!!!! How do you think the voters feel where their vote doesn't count due to faulty machines?!?