Voting Machines and why Texas is best
Cause we use optical scanners! Punch cards have hanging chads, electronic machines are too complex and subject to attack at all stages — from bugs in the initial programming to being breached by crackers (hackers if you’re in the mainstream), and having data stolen or manipulated along the way. But the optical scanner technique, which have the voters directly mark on a piece of paper and are then scanned by optical machines, first and foremost have the best paper trail, have very little ambivalence, and have the convenience of machine tablulation. Remember back in school when you took multiple choice tests with Scantron sheets? Same thing. If the computer screws up, the teacher just takes a look at the original paper you turned in and scored you on that. No confusion! We don’t need computers with fancy touch screens and expensive hardware that lobbying companies want to sell to the .gov. Stick with tried and true!
Edit 2008-11-04: Ok, so I’ve found out we don’t use optical scanners for all of the state. So Texas is not best after all. But here’s more foundation to support my arguments:
The solution: Smith advocates an optical scan system where voters fill out a paper ballot that’s subsequently scanned to create a digital vote. That way, ballots can be quickly counted, but if the computerized vote tally comes under suspicion, poll workers can always recount the paper itself.