The danger is as troubling as it is obvious. Elections can be stolen, without anyone noticing.

[midnight]

"•In 2010, a University of Michigan assistant professor of computer science and three assistants hacked into Washington, D.C.'s online voting system during a test. They manipulated it undetected, even programming it to play the Michigan fight song. While inside, the hackers blocked probes from Iran, India and China. Washington officials canceled plans for online voting.

Experiences like these argue for great caution about expanding electronic voting, but too many states are choosing convenience over reliability. Sixteen states, for example, use electronic voting devices with no paper backup, according to a study by the Verified Voting Foundation, Common Cause and the Rutgers School of Law.

This means there's no way to know whether the machine has recorded a vote accurately or, for that matter, recorded it at all. And there's no way for elections officials to conduct a verifiable recount if things go wrong.

It's far better to have, as many other states do, machines that generate a simultaneous paper record that voters can see when they vote, and that officials can audit to make sure the machines are getting the votes right."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/story/2012-09-19/electronic-voting-fraud-security/57809062/1

[Coyotl]

1. Yes, they are designed that way for that reason.

Very useful in other countries too!

[midnight]

2. Brad Blogs interesting take on this:

USA Today takes a moment to mention that point in an unbylined editorial headlined 'Electronic voting is the real threat to elections'. Their headline may understate the very real concerns about access to the polls, because these two issues --- both access to the polls and accurate, transparent tabulation of ballots --- have always been two sides of the same coin.http://bradblog.com/

[bemildred]

3. Electronic voting is a dumb idea badly carried out.

It's only real attractions are being cheap (in theory) and making lots of money for vendors, who then make "contributions"..

[Shagman]

4. Nothing else really matters

If you can't trust the results of an election, democracy is meaningless.

If your vote doesn't count, you don't count.

The companies that make these machines are tools of the Republican Party. That's an open secret.

The media should have blared this story every day on page 1 since the 2000 election. Better late than never, I guess.