South Dakota about to buy electronic voting machines.

[Eric J in MN]

PLEASE CONTACT YOUR STATE REPs AGAINST ELECTRONIC VOTING MACHINES.

I'm against electronic voting machines even if they print paper ballots; I believe the simpler the better with regard to voting.

When electronic machines are used, they may not display all the races.

They may record touching the screen for one candidate as a vote for another.

While voters can check how their vote was recorded on a review screen, and under the Mercuri method, also on the printout, many voters don't check. If some voters check a review screen or printout and fix their choices but others don't, the election result can be different than the will of the voters.

The expense of electronic machines means fewer polling booths and longer lines than with paper ballots.

Anyway, this article says South Dakota is planning to buy electronic voting machines soon, and that they will probably choose one with a "paper trail.'

The article implies that voting with electronic machines is faster. This is false, because there are fewer polling booths and because of issues with the cards stuck into electronic machines.

The article also implies that it's necessary to switch to be handicapped-accessible. This is also false. The AutoMark Voting Machine allows the handicapped to use the same optical-scan ballots as other voters.

[existentialist]

1. contacting State Rep

I've printed a hard copy of this that I will definitely provide to my State Rep.

(I think I may have enough pull with him to actually get him to read it.)