I just heard on Air Merica that Montana legislated paper ballots..

[sam sarrha]

:woohoo:

[Jane Austin]

1. Did they mandate that votes be tallied & certified at the precinct level?

That's an important component to insuring fraud-free elections.

That said, Way to Go, Montana!!!

May all the democratic legislatures follow your lead.

[eleny]

2. "MANUALLY COUNTED"

http://data.opi.state.mt.us/bills/2005/billhtml/HB0297.htm

"AN ACT PROVIDING THAT PAPER BALLOTS MUST BE USED IN ANY ELECTION SO THAT VOTES MAY BE MANUALLY COUNTED; PROVIDING AN EXCEPTION ONLY TO FACILITATE VOTING BY DISABLED VOTERS; AND AMENDING SECTION 13-17-103, MCA."

Edit: This law also requires a tallying system that allows for auditing.

[FreedomAngel82]

3. I also heard

him saying how only people who will use touch screen's are those who are disabled. Anybody know about this?

[eleny]

4. See my posting above for the link to the law

It's in there.

[hedda_foil]

5. No, they did not mandate hand counting.

They mandated that the ballots COULD be hand counted.

[eleny]

6. But they have to be ready for auditing

Here's the quote:
"the system records votes in a manner that will allow the votes to be printed and manually counted or audited if necessary."

The auditing language is pretty important, I think.