... These examples are just the tip of the iceberg.

Problems abound. But it's actually much, much worse.

The Big Issue: Security

So, how do you know that the machine actually counted your vote? You don't! Oh sure, you may see a screen at the end of the process that shows you what you selected ... but how do you know that those choices are actually tabulated? The answer: trust the companies that make the machines. But that attitude, if it ever made sense, has been shown to be not just wrong but foolhardy in the past several months. ...

Of course, anyone that really cares about security knows that a system has to be built with security in mind from the get-go. You can't just bolt security on top of a system after the fact and assume that the any problems will be fixed. But that's exactly what Diebold proposes to do. They told us to trust them before, and now they're asking us to trust them again. How trusting are you?

Some Proposed Solutions

Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.) has proposed the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2003 (H.R. 2239). Holt's proposed law would mandate the following by the November 2004 general election: ...