Reply #72: Old and In the Way...Here's what you need to know...

[BradBlog]

VVPAT's do not work. Period.

They are not accurate, they jam, they mismatch the internal count almost every time anybody bothers to audit them, and voters don't actually check them in many cases.

In Toledo in 2005 and in Franklin County (as I recall) in 2006, VVPAT rolls came in completely empty. Why did nobody notice? Not voters, not elections officials.

Those were both Diebold touch-screen systems, which have an opaque plastic door over the view window to the VVPAT. (see photos here: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=2578)

If you happen to be informed enough to lift that door, you'll then find a magnifying glass which Diebold includes with every machine.

Then, you'll have to hope your ballot isn't long enough that the results scroll by the window before you can "verify" it. If you happen to know to do so.

Of course, you have to be informed enough to know you're supposed to lift that door and check your paper trail. That only works when poll workers DON'T instruct folks to NOT lift that door (watch a poll worker do exactly that in California on PBS News Hours' report on CA's primary here: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=2968)

Audits of the paper trail v. the machine count continuously find they don't match. And then what? In California, for example, the paper is NOT the "ballot of record".

Oh...so many reasons why VVPAT simply does not work. Not the least of which is that nobody bothers to actually count them. The machine counts are used instead.

I'll let other folks continue to explain as needed.

America needs a paper BALLOT vote every vote cast. Period.