carpe decorum

Sunshine Voting

It seems those building voting machines are at least recognizing the legitimate concerns about their equipment and are willing to concede the need for paper ballots. As reported by Wired News: "I have no doubt that all systems will offer a voter-verifiable paper ballot, Bill Stotesbery of Hart InterCivic said. The capability to deliver that functionality exists and will continue to improve.

The paper ballot seems the best way to maintain trust in election results by furnishing an auditable trail to ensure electronic voting databases maintain their integrity and accuracy, so certainly, voters will benefit if the industry is embracing paper verification methods in response to identified weaknesses in deployed systems. Yet, it remains to be seen if the industry's efforts to form a lobbying association will result in standards for voting records, or is an attempt to spin bad news into good. The latter would be a shame, since industry gold standards are good for voters and for the bottom line. And if you are in the business of counting votes, your best interest had better be in doing a credible job.