It’s election time.  And this year brings even greater numbers of electronic voting machines.  While hanging chads will slowly become a thing of the past, digital voting boxes aren’t without their own set of problems and critics.  

From the article:

 

  • 55% of American voters will cast ballots via optical-scan systems
  • 33% will use electronic touch screens
Complicating things are the fact that each county in each state can be completely different from the next.  You might have the optical-scan, various forms of touch screens recently introduced, to hand counted paper ballots and the 1960′s punch machines.  Users have already reported false selections with the electronic touch screens, and not all electronic systems produce any kind of paper trail.  At least with a punched hanging chad ballot you’ve got the physical record to look at.  Lack of a paper trail makes it potentially a lot easier to manipulate the system.  
The best advice from the article is that if you’re at a polling location and think something is amiss, do not hit the ‘cast vote’ button and immediately call over an election official or poll worker to investigate.  Otherwise, once the vote is cast, correctly or otherwise, there’s no way to change it.

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