Touch Screen Paper Trail....In VENEZUELA!

[mfritz]

Unbelievable! Venezuela's election used touch screen voting machines that produce a paper trail, and they're using them to check the disputed recall vote. Jimmy Carter's on the case. Tell me again why we can't do this in the US?

Excerpt:

The referendum was carried out on touch-screen voting machines, which produced a paper receipt of each vote, much like an ATM. Voters then deposited the receipts into a ballot box. Amid charges that the electronic machines were rigged, the monitors will be checking the results from the machines against the paper ballots to make sure there are no major discrepancies. The paper ballots will be checked at election offices while votes recorded in the machines will be examined at an army base.

Mr. Carter made clear that the opposition won't have a leg to stand on if they keep crying foul after the audit, which he said should be completed by Thursday.

“It should be sufficient to address the remaining concerns that have been expressed by the opposition,” Mr. Carter said at the nationally broadcast news conference.

Found this article in the Globe & Mail: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040818.wvenez0818/BNStory/International/ via corrente blog

[salinen]

1. The technology needed to produce

a receit from a touch screen voting machine is decades away. Although Casio make a cash register that will do it, and most kids can operate a calculator that has a paper feed.

[mfritz]

2. Must be the cost

Maybe only RICH countries like Venezuela can afford the printers.

[tekriter]

3. Must be alien technology from outer space...

no way this of Earth origin!

[ramblin_dave]

4. Even with a paper trail there was controversy...

There was a big margin of victory for Chavez but still an audit was demanded. Then there were complaints that the audit wasn't done on the spot so questions arose about the chain of custody of the paper ballots.

Imagine if we have a close election and there's nothing to audit for 30% of the votes cast. Recipe for disaster.

[SoCalDem]

5. PAPER IS FOR SISSIES....Girlie-Men