WI Assembly OKs Voting Paper Trail

AdamBLang writes "Madison Wisconsin's Capitol Times reports 'With only four dissenting votes, the state Assembly easily passed a bill that would require that electronic voting machines create a paper record. The goal of the legislation is to make sure that Wisconsin's soon-to-be-purchased touch screen machines create a paper ballot that can be audited to verify election results.' Slashdot has previously reported on this bill." More from the article: "Wisconsin cannot go down the path of states like Florida and Ohio in having elections that the public simply doesn't trust ... By requiring a paper record on every electronic voting machine, we will ensure that not only does your vote matter in Wisconsin, but it also counts."

Ka-Ching!

[Ossifer]

The folks over at Diebold are happy to hear this--now they can charge a whole bunch extra for printers...

Of course they may have to spend it on software fixes...

Too bad

[gcnaddict]

Its too bad this doesnt work on punch cards, especially with those "pregnant chads"

CE?

[divisivemind]

"And best of all, the next system is built from a modified version of Windows CE to ensure all votes are counted."

Oh...nevermind. I made that up. ;P

Thank god...

[chriswaclawik]

...everybody knows that votes on paper can never be tampered with.

Re:Ka-Ching!

[Waffle Iron]

The folks over at Diebold are happy to hear this--now they can charge a whole bunch extra for printers...

Actually, the printers will be provided at no extra charge. However, the consumables will be a different story. Diebold predicts that by 2009, ink and paper refills will generate 87% of their revenue and over 94% of their total profits. The remainder of the profits will be generated largely by sales of extended warranty plans.

Electronic trail

[toddlll]

In other news, Gov. Jeb Bush has signed a contract with Diebold for a system that can provide an electronic audit trail for Florida's paper ballots. Gov. Bush said "This is a great day for democracy. We will now have the capability to handle vote recounts in a fraction of a second."