Bill would require paper receipts for electronic voting terminals (Ca.)

[Judi Lynn]

Bill would require paper receipts for electronic voting terminals

RACHEL KONRAD, Associated Press Writer Thursday, December 11, 2003


(12-11) 18:21 PST SAN FRANCISCO (AP) --

Sen. Barbara Boxer said Thursday she'll introduce a bill requiring electronic voting machines to produce paper records by November 2004 to ensure accurate elections.

The legislation, which the California Democrat and Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., plan to introduce early next year, also would require electronic voting companies to meet tougher security standards, including background checks for software engineers.

"I'm not a paranoid person by nature in any way, but we need to make sure there's confidence built into the system," Boxer said Thursday in a phone interview. "I can think of nothing more important than to be sure that every vote counts."

Voting rights advocates and computer scientists have argued that paperless voting machines such as touchscreen terminals expose elections to hackers, software bugs and mechanical failures. But voting equipment companies and county registrars say requiring paper records would dramatically increase the cost and complexity of voting. (snip/...)

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/12/11/national2121EST0805.DTL

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. on Boxer voted

for the medifaud. But now she is making sense! WTF over!

[hedda_foil]

3. Boxer did NOT vote for the medicare scam. That was Feinstein.

Boxer is almost always on the right side and always in important legislation.

[Langis]

4. Boxer did not vote for it

That was Feinstein

[pinto]

2. good bill and good exposure for issue... (bill is federal not CA)

[BlueEyedSon]

5. Bob Graham (D-FL) doing the same in the Senate (link)

http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20031210-033542-1478r.htm

[pinto]

6. "companion to the House's Voter Verification Act", cool, I hope we can put

this one to bed....

[mrdmk]

7. Good, about time

Because, I have been sending e-mails to Congressman Christopher Cox, Irvine-R, Congressman Nancy Pelosi, San Francisco-D, Senator Barbara Boxer, California-D, Senator Dianne Feinstein California-D about this issue. The House bill is stuck in committee and there is very little press.

We need to get people to vote, and we need our votes counted correctly. Please contact your Congressman and Senators.

http://www.house.gov

http://www.senate.gov/

Personally, I am going thank Senator Boxer for her efforts

http://boxer.senate.gov/contact/webform.cfm

[pinto]

8. a little late catching your post, but thanks for the links

[w4rma]

9. Good, but paper **ballots** are what's needed, not recepts.

Touchscreens should print out a ballot to be verified by the voter and then dropped into a ballot box for later counting.

The term that the headline uses, "paper reciepts", is very poor, because reciepts are usually something you take home as proof of a purchase (vote?). You don't want that, since folks could start paying people for verified votes, then.

The term that, I think Boxer uses, "paper records" is much better and I believe is the language used in Holt's bill. *I* would prefer the term "paper ballots", though, as it is clearer.

[stickdog]

10. Call Boxer now to give your support for voter verified paper ballots! (nt)

[David Zephyr]

11. Boxer & Graham!

Excellent.

[shanti]

12. yay, barbara!

she's one of the good ones! :thumbsup: