Hugo Chavez is a proponent of touch screen voting

[rumguy]

"Despite an electronic voting fiasco in 2000 and the furor over e-voting in the United States, Venezuela is using untested touch screen computers for its recall referendum on Hugo Chavez's presidency.

Critics fear touch screen voting machines in the Aug. 15 vote could fail spectacularly, exacerbating a crisis over Chavez's rule that has polarized the world's No. 5 oil exporter and killed dozens in sporadic political violence."

snip

"That didn't deter the Chavez-dominated Venezuelan Elections Council from choosing Smartmatic Corp., a little-known Boca Raton, Fla.-based company, to provide similar technology - albeit with a printed record of each vote - for the referendum.

Smartmatic has never tested its machines in an election. And there has been no independent analysis or certification of its touch screen system, although the council says the system will be audited before the vote."

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/technology/article/0,1299,DRMN_49_3029224,00.html

[ParanoidPat]

1. Chavez had the voting machines that the US State Department......

......suggested he use thrown out of the country after they malfunctioned during a public demonstration several years ago. He has not been a known proponent of touch screen technology. Please see the following links.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_764000/764372.stm

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/07/13/venezuela.e.voting.ap/

http://www.blackboxvoting.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=3

http://www.southernstudies.org/reports/votingmachines-new.htm

http://www.vheadline.com/section.asp?pageno=19&secid=44

[fujiyama]

2. I heard touch screen

voting systems were used in Brazil as well.

[ParanoidPat]

4. You are correct!

See these links! :evilgrin:

http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,61654-2,00.html?tw=wn_story_page_next1

For Brazil Voters, Machines Rule

<snip>

"Obviously there's a cost (for paper receipts), but on some things you don't skimp," Stanton said. "If the government wants to skimp (for reasons of time and money), then they might not use them at all."

Designed by the Brazilian government, these electronic voting machines were made by Unisys and ProComp, a Brazilian company now owned by Diebold Election Systems. The Brazilian machines are attached to printers to provide an auditable paper trail -- a feature that Diebold's U.S. systems currently lack.

Printers or no printers, Brazil spends less on its voting technology than the United States.

While Diebold's touch-screen voting machines cost an average of $3,000 in the United States, the urnas (which have no touch screen) cost $420 on average, according to Justica Eleitoral, the nation's electoral commission. Buying machines in large quantities lowers their cost, authorities said. The two manufacturers, Unisys and ProComp, won public bids to make the machines, a spokesman said.

Brazil, which has alternated between military dictatorships and democracy since the fall of the imperial monarchy in 1889, has a long history of election fraud. A judge in this state of cows and grains was killed for contesting the results in one local election. Pre-urnas elections were easier to rig, said Daniel Wobeto, chief of technical operations at the electoral commission in Rio Grande do Sul. "Paper ballots were stuffed in canvas pouches, and people would switch ballots from one candidate's pile and put it in another pile," he said.

First introduced in some precincts in 1996, urnas were used in all precincts in 2000. Voting officials took them on road shows, setting them up in bus and train stations and banks so Brazilians could have easy access to them.

Voters punch in digits for their candidate of choice (lists with numbers that match candidates' names are available at precincts). The name and a picture of the candidate appear after the number is punched in. Voters confirm their votes by pressing a green button.

There's no turning back once the green button has been pressed -- one of the system's drawbacks, said Wobeto.

<More>

http://www.diebold.com/dieboldes/solutions2.htm

[stickdog]

3. They print Voter Verified Auditable Paper Ballots.

We should be so lucky.

[HuckleB]

5. The key -- "albeit with a printed record of each vote."

Isn't that what we're asking for in the U.S., but can't get from GOP dominated scumbags?