AP: E-voting under scrutiny as federal compliance deadline looms

[reprehensor]

E-voting under scrutiny as federal compliance deadline looms

Posted on Wed, Nov. 30, 2005
Associated Press

Even in this election off-year, the potential perils of electronic voting systems are bedeviling state officials as a Jan. 1 deadline approaches for complying with standards for the machines' reliability.

Across the country, officials are trying multiple methods to ensure that touch-screen voting machines can record and count votes without falling prey to software bugs, hackers, malicious insiders or other ills that beset computers.

This isn't just theoretical -- problems in some states already have led to lost or miscounted votes.

One of the biggest concerns surrounding computerized ballots -- their frequent inability to produce a written receipt of a vote -- has been addressed or is being tackled in most states.

Still, an October report from the Government Accountability Office predicted that overall steps to improve electronic voting machines' reliability ``are unlikely to have a significant effect'' in next year's elections, partly because certification procedures remain a work in progress.

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