WaPo: MD repub gov Erlich calls for paper ballots, says Diebold not secure

[Amaryllis]

More MSM coverage!

Touch-Screen Voting Fallible, Ehrlich Says
Elections Official Urged To Back Paper-Ballot Bill

By Ann E. Marimow
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 6, 2006; B01

Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) has embraced a legislative proposal to abandon the state's touch-screen voting machines for the coming election, in which he is a candidate, and to lease others that provide a paper record to verify results.

"Maryland's lack of a paper trail means we are no longer a national leader in elections systems and that our equipment is susceptible to system failures," the governor wrote in a letter to be delivered today to the chairman of the State Board of Elections. "It is inexcusable for us not to be prepared for a catastrophic system failure in the 2006 cycle."

Ehrlich's endorsement is the latest turn in the debate over Maryland's electronic voting machines that were used in nearly every polling place in the 2004 election. The state has committed $90 million to the system, which critics say is vulnerable to tampering.

State Elections Board Chairman Gilles W. Burger and Administrator Linda H. Lamone have defended the current system, made by Diebold Election Systems, as secure and the most accurate in the nation.

For the rest:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/05/AR2006030501045_pf.html