Security of ballot not 100%
Found on Baltimore Sun on Sunday, 20 January 2008
Outraged by the butterfly ballots and hanging chads of the disputed 2000 presidential election, political activists nationwide pushed for user-friendly voting systems that wouldn't lead to a repeat of the confusion that left the outcome in Florida - and the nation - in doubt.
Less than eight years later - after taxpayers in Maryland and other states spent hundreds of millions on easy-to-use, all-electronic, touch-screen voting machines - the debate has come full circle.
By 2010, four years before its $65 million touch-screen machines will be paid off, Maryland expects to be back on the paper trail, following states such as Florida and California, which have also decided that all-electronic systems make it too easy to compromise elections.
One think it should be easy to make a touchscreen system that's secure and works as expected. But there's Diebold, who delivered one failure after another. Still, even without them, I find the traditional pen and paper more attractive; but then, this might be a geek thing.