Touch screen voting machines in Florida seem to have problems with not counting votes. But a Florida appeals court upheald a lower court ruling which decided to allow independent auditors to check out the machines would be “gutting the protections afforded those who own trade secrets.” Never mind the democratic process, we have to protect the trade secrets!
It all started when candidate Christine Jennings lost to Rep. Vern Buchanan by only 368 votes in a House race last year, the slimmest margin of any congressional race in the country. Irregularities in the election, particularly high undervote rates, caused Jennings to express doubts about the validity of the outcome. During the election, approximately 15 percent (or 18,000) of the total ballots cast in the district did not include a vote in the disputed race. By comparison, the absentee ballots in the same district and regular paper ballots used in neighboring districts only exhibit a 2 percent undervote rate for congressional races. The high undervote rates have been attributed to the ES&S iVotronic machines used in the 13th district. [source]
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is looking into this, and congress may subpeona the company that manufactures the seemingly unreliable voting machines. I hope the voting machine company has nothing to hide and decides to willingly open up it’s software to independent auditors. If they do have something to hide, I hope the responsible parties go to jail.
It seems to me that touch screen voting machines are a good idea. Let people see a picture of the candidates, along with the name and they can select by touching the screen. With ballot measures, it can be a green “YES” button and a red “NO” button. Before the votes are submitted, display a verification screen so the voter can double check for any mistakes, and then when they finish, print out a receipt for the voter.
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