Why We Don't Have Universal Electronic Voting ... - Business Insider

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Remember Florida's 2000 voting ballot fiasco?

In our increasingly paper-free society, it's surprising that only 25 percent of the country will use electronic voting systems this year, down from 40 percent in 2006.

Why the drop when we rely so much on technology in every other part of our lives? Tim Heffeman outlines several reasons in an article for Popular Mechanics:

• They can be hacked: "Not during actual elections ? not even under real-world conditions ? but hacked nonetheless. In July 2003, a team of computer scientists from Johns Hopkins University announced that it had reprogrammed the market-leading Diebold AccuVote-TS by popping a lock and replacing the memory card."
• They are expensive: "Paper and pencils cost relatively little. They require no maintenance. By contrast, touchscreens sell for roughly $6000 apiece... 'For every machine that's purchased,' one expert says, 'there's a picture of a schoolteacher who wasn't hired.'"
• Prone to human error: "In 2004, 4438 votes in Carteret County, N.C., went missing. The hardware worked just fine, but local administrators had inadvertently programmed the software to accept fewer votes than the community required." And many other examples.
• Hardware problems cause malfunctions: "They were plagued from the start by hardware problems. Machines overheated and shut down. Memory cards failed. Reboots erased votes."?
• They don't leave physical records: "In a disputed election, voters [have] little choice but to trust the machines. If tallies were lost?to malfunction or malfeasance?there was no way to get them back." Efforts to create paper trails are problematic in themselves ? printers break, and there is plenty of room for human error.

In today's election, reports have been circling (including video) of an electronic voting machine that seems to be glitchy ? it only has a tiny area that can select Obama as president, otherwise a click on Obama's check-box results in a Romney vote. A report from MSNBC suggests that the machine has been taken out of use.

Even before Election Day, a fight over electronic voting machines has been brewing in the nation's biggest battleground state, Ohio. Many are up in arms after an alleged last-minute un-certified software update to the voting machines' "reporting tool," authorized by Ohio's republican Secretary of State. The changes are supposed to ease the reporting of results, not impact the tally.

Robert Fitrakis, a Green Party candidate for U.S. Congress, has asked a federal judge to block use of the machines in vote counting, according to Businessweek.

UPDATE: Judge Rejects Lawsuit To Block Ohio's Electronic Voting Machines

SEE ALSO: LIVE: America Is Going To The Polls >

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/why-we-dont-have-universal-electronic-voting-machines-yet-2012-11

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