One of President Lincoln's oft quoted remarks is that "the ballot is stronger than the bullet".
OK, Abe didn't lie. It was true in 1860. But not anymore.
Last fall, ES&S quietly purchased Diebold, giving them 80% of market for electronic voting machings. And it's not just the un-auditable vote-counting; they now also own polling place check-in software (electronic pollbooks), voter registration software and vote-by-mail authentication software.
http://www.benalexandra.com/cool_stuff/diebold_ess.htm This link has very scary information, all with appropriate citations, regarding what could easily be a mass-manipulation of our elections.
When you buy a pack of gum, you get a receipt. Why is there no receipt/audit trail on our votes? I can only think of one reason.