Questions about the reliability of electronic ballots [View All]

[papau]

Nov. 2, 2004, in the presidential election, an estimated 29% of voters had access to electronic voting machines, up from 13% in 2000......per..Election Data Services

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-voting3jan03,0,457648.story?track=tottext
From the Los Angeles Times
THE STATE
Voting System Results Still Out
Questions about the reliability of electronic ballots combine with changing regulations to fuel confusion and debate over technology.
By Noam N. Levey
Times Staff Writer

January 3, 2006



Indiana's largest county has sued the company that sold it electronic voting machines. Across the border in Ohio, the same company has sued the state.

"It's been crazy," said San Diego County Registrar of Voters Mikel Haas, who said he is returning to paper ballots because the state refused to recertify more than 10,000 electronic machines the county bought two years ago. "Everyone is in uncharted territory here."
<snip>

Although the Help America Vote Act set up a federal commission to assist the states, the Election Assistance Commission did not come into existence until 2004, more than a year late. And only in December did it release voluntary voting-machine guidelines.<snip>

In Orange County, thousands of voters got the wrong ballots when they tried to use the county's electronic machines in March 2004.

In coastal Carteret County, N.C., more than 4,400 electronic votes were lost in the November 2004 election, throwing at least one close statewide race into uncertainty for more than two months.

And in Dade County, Fla., home to Miami and a central battleground in the disputed 2000 presidential election, the elections chief resigned earlier this year amid revelations that a coding glitch in the county's 3-year-old electronic voting system had resulted in hundreds of lost votes in six elections.

The new elections chief, Lester Sola, is talking about replacing the $24.5-million system with paper ballots that can be counted by an optical scanner.<snip>