BookPeople
Thanks for Nichols' Article on Electronic Voting
RECEIVED Fri., Feb. 27, 2004
Dear Editor,
It was refreshing to read Lee Nichols' excellent article explaining the perils of electronic voting ["How Safe Is Your E-Vote?," News, Feb. 20]. Even Hart InterCivic has its problems. Hundreds of Houston area voters didn't get to cast votes.
There are many electronic voting companies out there, but they seem to balk at providing a voter-verified paper trail for their equipment. I guess they don't want anyone to be able to prove how inaccurate or fallible their machines are. Ironically, such companies as Diebold also manufacture ATMs, and would not think of omitting the paper trail there.
Makes you wonder why they omit that for something as important as the equipment that we cast our vote on.
One also must wonder why the government Wewants to ignore the thousands of computer experts that are practically screaming the dangers of electronic voting.
Thank you for the excellent article.
It was refreshing to read Lee Nichols' excellent article explaining the perils of electronic voting ["How Safe Is Your E-Vote?," News, Feb. 20]. Even Hart InterCivic has its problems. Hundreds of Houston area voters didn't get to cast votes.
There are many electronic voting companies out there, but they seem to balk at providing a voter-verified paper trail for their equipment. I guess they don't want anyone to be able to prove how inaccurate or fallible their machines are. Ironically, such companies as Diebold also manufacture ATMs, and would not think of omitting the paper trail there.
Makes you wonder why they omit that for something as important as the equipment that we cast our vote on.
One also must wonder why the government Wewants to ignore the thousands of computer experts that are practically screaming the dangers of electronic voting.
Thank you for the excellent article.
Joyce McCloy
Winston-Salem, N.C.
Coordinator
North Carolina Coalition for Verified Voting
Winston-Salem, N.C.
Coordinator
North Carolina Coalition for Verified Voting
[Lee Nichols replies: I'm not sure to what you refer when you say "Hundreds of Houston area voters didn't get to cast votes." After the 2002 general election, the Houston Chronicle and Austin American-Statesman reported that ballot-counting went slowly in Houston, and a few polling places were temporarily immobilized when poll workers mistakenly activated the Hart InterCivic machines' shutdown sequence. But overall, media accounts described problems as minor and due to human error.]
