From The New York Times, 12/8/06:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/08/washington/08voting.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1165590741-ZEmfhu3kh/2BbnlMWoTRzw

Changes Are Expected in Voting by 2008 Election

By IAN URBINA and CHRISTOPHER DREW

By the 2008 presidential election, voters around the country are
likely to see sweeping changes in how they cast their ballots and how
those ballots are counted, including an end to the use of most
electronic voting machines without a paper trail, federal voting
officials and legislators say.

New federal guidelines, along with legislation given a strong chance
to pass in Congress next year, will probably combine to make the
paperless voting machines obsolete, the officials say.

States and counties that bought the machines will have to modify them
to hook up printers, at federal expense, while others are planning to
scrap the machines and buy new ones.

From The New York Times, 12/8/06:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/08/washington/08voting.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1165590741-ZEmfhu3kh/2BbnlMWoTRzw

Changes Are Expected in Voting by 2008 Election

By IAN URBINA and CHRISTOPHER DREW

By the 2008 presidential election, voters around the country are
likely to see sweeping changes in how they cast their ballots and how
those ballots are counted, including an end to the use of most
electronic voting machines without a paper trail, federal voting
officials and legislators say.

New federal guidelines, along with legislation given a strong chance
to pass in Congress next year, will probably combine to make the
paperless voting machines obsolete, the officials say.

States and counties that bought the machines will have to modify them
to hook up printers, at federal expense, while others are planning to
scrap the machines and buy new ones.

Motivated in part by voting problems during the midterm elections last
month, the changes are a result of a growing skepticism among local
and state election officials, federal legislators and the scientific
community about the reliability and security of the paperless
touch-screen machines used by about 30 percent of American voters.

The changes also mean that the various forms of vote-counting software
used around the country -- most of which are protected by their
manufacturers for reasons of trade secrecy -- will for the first time
be inspected by federal authorities, and the code could be made
public.

There will also be greater federal oversight on how new machines are
tested before they arrive at polling stations.

"In the next two years I think we'll see the kinds of sweeping changes
that people expected to see right after the 2000 election," said Doug
Chapin, director of electionline.org, a nonpartisan election group.

"The difference now is that we have moved from politics down to
policies."

Many of the paperless machines were bought in a rush to overhaul the
voting system after the disputed presidential election in 2000, which
was marred by hanging chads.

But concerns have been growing that in a close election those machines
give election workers no legitimate way to conduct a recount or to
check for malfunctions or fraud.

Several counties around the country are already considering scrapping
their voting systems after problems this year, and last week federal
technology experts concluded for the first time that paperless
touch-screen machines could not be secured from tampering.

Having stalled for over two years, federal legislation requiring a
shift to paper trails and other safeguards, proposed by Representative
Rush D. Holt, Democrat of New Jersey, has a better chance of passing
next session, several members of Congress and election officials say.

They say that fixing the voting system is viewed as a core issue by
the new Democratic leaders, and the bill already has the bipartisan
support of more than a majority of the current House.

Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, who will be the new
chairwoman of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, said she
planned to introduce a similar bill in January.

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Awwwww. *Now* what are the Republicans gonna do

Harry