Feds to Recommend Paper Trail for Electronic Votes

flanksteak writes "The National Institute of Standards and Technology is going to recommend the decertification of all electronic voting machines that don't create paper records. Although it sounds like this recommendation may have been in the works for a while, the recent issues in Sarasota, FL (18,000 missing votes) have brought the issue a higher profile. The most interesting comment in the story comes near the end, in which the author cites a study that said paper trails from electronic voting machines aren't all they're cracked up to be."

Re:Paper voting!

[The Zon]

It's not my fault the clock is round and keeps rolling off.

Timing is Everything

[Doc Ruby]

Fascinating that the NIST requires an evidence trail only after Bush is no longer involved in a single election, only weeks after Democrats take back control of Congress.

So the law makes it harder for Democrats to steal elections like Republicans could get away with for years.

Though I bet Jeb Bush (R-FL) is pissed.

Next up, a law against lying the US into war. Or maybe against spending $TRILLIONS in debt. Against ignoring PDB warnings of terrorist attacks? Or maybe against NSA warrantless wiretapping. It all looks so much more sensible to live in a democracy when you're a civilian than when you're "the decider".

Re:Best solution I've seen

[Anonymous Coward]

Ya never know... maybe he really did mean "for all highly concentrated purposes".

Kinda makes sense in this context to me.

Selling targeted ads on voting machine screens

[SimHacker]

The real reason they want to use touch screen voting machines is so they can pay for all the new equipment by selling targeted ads on the touch screens. As you vote, the ads will be tailored to the demographics of the candidates you support.

-Don