Some see electronic voting machines as the answer to the kinds of problems encountered in Florida during the highly controversial 2000 election. Unfortunately, e-voting hasn't worked out exactly as planned.
State governments rushed to purchase computerized voting machines but problems with software, the lack of a paper trail and the potential for fraud cropped up and created a whole new set of concerns.
Ohio, a key state in the 2008 presidential election, is among the states that has had more than its share of problems with e-voting. This time around, Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner said state residents who mistrust touch-screen systems will be allowed to vote on a paper ballot. The directive came after corporate and academic computer scientists, and security experts found "critical security failures" in every system tested. Ohio officials discovered in March that some voting systems manufactured by Premier Elections Solutions Inc., a subsidiary of Diebold Inc., dropped votes as they were being uploaded to a main server.
Because the problem is in the tabulator system, it affects votes cast on Diebold's direct recording electronic systems, which are usually touch screen, and paper ballot optical-scan systems. The same central tabulators will be used in more than 30 states next month.
For more on e-voting problems:
- see this CIO.com article
