The Return of Paper Ballots?

Posted on September 6, 2007

Congress is now considering the return of good old fashioned paper ballots for the next election. Voter confidence in electronic voting machines is at an all-time low after hackers have shown how easy it is to hack the vote.

Lawmakers have come full circle after devoting more money to high-tech voting machines following the 2000 election controversy in Florida. They now say a return to the paper trails of old is the key to an honest vote, exasperating state election officials.
Legislation pending in the House would require a voter-verified paper ballot for every vote cast in national elections beginning with the November 2008 ballot. It also would require random audits in federal elections and specifies that the paper ballot is the vote of record in all recounts and audits. Public confidence in the voting process is at an all-time low, said Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., the bill's chief sponsor. "I shudder to think what would happen with another election where millions of Americans don't believe the results," Holt said.
But his bill has been hit by a barrage of criticism from state and local election officials and election machine makers who contend the timelines are unrealistic, the audit process is overly cumbersome, the reliance on paper is too restrictive and the money allotted to replace existing systems, $1 billion, is insufficient. "The ramifications of hasty action on this ill-conceived piece of legislation are immense and far-reaching," Donna Stone, a member of the Delaware House of Representatives and president of the National Conference of State Legislatures, wrote to House leaders Wednesday. R. Doug Lewis, executive director of the Election Center of the National Association of Election Officials, said the bill was so objectionable that, if passed, he would recommend that state and local election officials refuse to run future federal elections.
A planned vote on the House floor Thursday was put off after the legislation met resistance in the Democratic-controlled Rules Committee, which sets rules for floor debate. "I really am scared we're waltzing off a cliff here," said Rules Committee Chairman Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., citing the need for more comprehensive election reform. It could come up on Monday. Few were arguing against the need for Congress to restore integrity to the election system.

Electronic voting machines are too unreliable to be used in their present incarnation. Time and time again, hackers have demonstrated how easy it is to alter an election just enough so that one candidate has an advantage. We need a paper trail because elections are important. No one wants a repeat of the 2000 election and hanging chads.

A democracy cannot function if its citizens don't trust the voting process. And right now, most Americans don't trust electronic voting machines that can't be manually audited for fraud.