I came across this Computerworld blog, “Prevent unwanted presidencies with paper ballots” from September 25, 2008.  I am quoting from the first two paragraphs:

While attending MIT’s Emerging Technologies Conference in Cambridge today, I quickly found out that this country is still plagued with many of the same electronic ballot problems as it had in the presidential election of 2004, and now there seems to be a move afoot — as odd as it may sound — to get back to paper to ensure accuracy and legitimacy of election results.

California Secretary of State, Debra Bowen, joined three other e-voting experts at MIT’s Kresge Auditorium to address the public’s concern with the accuracy of today’s polling systems. Bowen, who took office in 2006, ordered a complete review of the state’s voting technology, which produced some surprising revelations as to problems many states, not just California, may face come November. Bowen said the review was in response to a “backlash” against electronic voting systems.

On September 25, the Brad Blog, which specializes in voting and election issues, had this funny ad by James Osgood, who is running for Secretary of State in Washington.

The ad is correct that touch-screen voting machines or direct recording electronic (DRE) voting machines can lose votes and that recounts are impossible.

To quote from the Brad Blog’s entry, “The Democratic candidate for Secretary of State in Washington state has released what he says will be the first of a series of campaign spots, satirizing the well-known “Mac v. PC” commercials, to highlight the differences between touch-screen voting machines and paper ballots.”

These commercials need to catch on fast so that people become aware of the problems with electronic voting machines.

I had added a link, “Use Paper Ballot,” so people can quickly check on why they should use paper ballots.  Please pass this information on.  I cannot emphasize enough the importance of using a paper ballot to make sure your vote is really counted!