It's Election Day and you have just voted on the county's brand new and much publicized electronic/computerized voting device (touch screen voting machine or DRE). Later, after the polls close, you hare home watching the news and you can't believe what the newscaster is saying.

The incumbent candidate who was favored to win and was extremely popular with the voters in your district lost the election.

You immediately wonder if those new touch screen voting machines counted your votes correctly. And worse, you wonder if it counted all of the county's' votes correctly.

The integrity of our elections and the ability of citizens to participate in Democracy by voting is guaranteed by the Constitution and is a fundamental fabric of our system of governance. What is more important than the conduct of elections that are accurate, free and fair? (Learn how you can help right now!)

Touch-screen voting machines are now used in many jurisdictions throughout America. The entire state of Georgia uses them. Many places in Florida now pride themselves on having state of the art electronic voting systems and counties throughout the fifty states are rushing to acquire these devices as local, state and federal monies are available for voting system modernization efforts.

The touch screen voting systems have some advantages in our diverse society. They do allow for the delivery of multi-lingual ballots, eliminate the printing of lots of paper ballots and give handicapped voters access unfettered access to the voting booth.

They do, however, represent a threat to our Democracy.

According to computer professionals like Stanford Professor David Dill and computer expert David Jefferson, touch-screen voting machines, as currently configured, are susceptible to manipulation. Also, with over twenty five years of experience in the elections area, I can tell you that computer programmers can make honest mistakes in programming vote counting computers.

Either way, there are supposed to be controls in place to catch the effects of a rogue programmer or the honest mistake. But what happens if it's not caught?

There is a solution to this problem. The solution is to have the electronic machine print out a paper ballot so that the voter can compare the electronic record to the paper ballot. The paper ballot then gets deposited into a locked ballot box and is stored until after the election. It can be used later for a recount, if necessary.

I know of one voting company who has developed a prototype of this type of voting device. Hopefully, others are working on the idea also.

There is federal legislation that would require a paper audit trail and states like California are considering mandating that approach. On the other side of the issue you have the California League of Women Voters and the ACLU who are opposed to these types of machines because they either feel that they are not necessary or they will delay the voting modernization process.

You do the research and decide for yourself.

Listed below are some articles to help you get started on learning more about this important topic. Or if you click here you can see a list of websites that deal with touch-screen voting and the need for an auditable paper trail.

Learn how you can help make voting secure in your area.

Paper Trail for Electronic Voting: Who Needs It?
I wrote this article which appeared in the San Jose Mercury News

Computer Voting Is Open to Easy Fraud, Experts Say
John Schwartz, New York Times, July 24, 2003

New computerized voting machines are vulnerable to tampering
Uncommon Denominator, Commonweal Institute's Newsletter, February, 2003

To Register Doubts, Press Here
Sam Lubell, New York Times, May 15, 2003

Voters must have faith in the vote count
Warren Slocum (chief elections officer and assessor-county clerk-recorder of San Mateo County, California), The San Jose Mercury News, May 19, 2003

In Computerizing Voting, Memory Would Help
Marie Coco, Newsday, July 3, 2003

Hacking the vote - Could tech nerds steal the 2004 election?
Paul Boutin, MSNBC, July 31, 2003

Paperless Voting Machines Under Fire
Newsday, Feb. 25, 2003

If You Want To Win An Election, Just Control The Voting Machines
Thom Hartmann, Common Dreams, January 31, 2003

Hagel’s ethics filings pose disclosure issue
Alexander Bolton, TheHill.com, January 29, 2003

Electronic voting system an invitation to trouble
Dan Gillmor, San Jose Mercury News, February 1, 2003

Who makes the vote-counting machines?
Bev Harris, Talion.com

Which Corporation Owns Your Vote
Thom Hartmann, AlterNet, March 6, 2003

Safeguarding the Vote
Doug Pibel, Yes Magazine, Summer, 2003

Hacking democracy?
Farhad Manjoo, Salon, February 20, 2003

Scientists question electronic voting
San Francisco Chronicle, March 3, 2003

Voting into the void: New touch-screen voting machines may look spiffy, but some experts say they can't be trusted.
Farhad Manjoo, Salon, November 5, 2002

Lynn Landes' analysis of the 2002 Elections
Lynn Landes, November 8, 2002

The Nightmare Scenario Is Here - Computer Voting With No Paper Trail
Lynn Landes, Common Dreams, August 5, 2002

Hacking democracy?
Farhad Manjoo, Salon, February 20, 2003

The Real Scandal Is the Voting Machines Themselves
Jonathan Vankin, New York Press, December 14, 2000

Board faces key decision on voting by computer - POTENTIAL FOR FRAUD WORRIES SUPERVISORS
San Jose Mercury News front page story, 2/24/03

If voters get a record of their ballot, they can check on the system.
San Jose Mercury News editorial, 2/21/03

Vote Fraud in America
James J. Condit, Jr., 1996

Area Democrats say early votes miscounted, Court hearing delayed as meeting planned on touch-screen problems
Dallas News, October 22, 2002

Paranoid party rights
Matthew Engel, The Guardian, February 12, 2003

Computer ballot outfit perverts Senate race, theorist says.
Thomas C Greene, The Register.
Also read the reply from Bev Harris, author of Black Box Voting

Voter News Service: What Went Wrong? Larry Barrett , Baseline Magazine, January 13, 2003
and Sideshow's essay linking to this.

Diebold - The face of modern ballot tampering
Faun Otter, undated

Can we trust the vote count anywhere? In any race? In any election?
Thomas Penn, Online Journal, November 14, 2002

Computerized Balloting is Taking Over Elections In Maryland--But Can We Trust the Results?
Van Smith, Baltimore City Paper, December 11, 2002

How to Rig a Touch Screen Voting Machine
Bill Sterner, All Hat No Cattle, November 9, 2002

Votescam in the Electronic Age
The Texas Observer, December 20, 2002

American Coup: Mid-Term Election Polls vs Actuals
Alastair Thompson, November 12, 2002

Black Box Voting - Ballot Tampering in the 21st Century
- a website dedicated to this issue.

Electronic Voting
contains many links to websites and stories about this issue.
Rebecca Mercuri, Ph.D.

The Secretive World of Voting Machines
Lynn Landes, website and links to articles, other websites

Computer-Related Elections
Peter Neumann's personal website with links to articles, papers, other websites

Election Fraud Additional Resources
Cronus Connection

Electionline.org
The Election Reform Information Project

Caltech-MIT Voting Technology Project

Voting Machines: Vote Tampering in the 21st Century
WhoseFlorida

Election Guardians
Election Guardians is a non-partisan, non-profit organization whose mission is to restore and institutionalize a voting system in the State of California that is free of fraud and manipulation.

Election 2002: The Case for Voting Machine Fraud
A collection of links to articles and resources
Benedict@Large

Voting Technology
California Voter Foundation

Voter Fraud 2002: Death Stalks America's Democracy
(Includes a collection of links.)
Warren Gammel , Gay Today, November 18, 2002