I have been in the computer field for twenty-plus years, and direct recording electronic voting machines (DREs) scare me out of my wits. Normally, I don’t scare easily, yet I am scared enough to always use a paper ballot.

If you think DREs are safe, think again. DREs should not be used because:

1. There is no way to insure the choices on the screen match the recorded votes. Check out this Brad Blog article from Brad Friedman about a DREs switching votes.  Friedman is an expert on voting issues, and I recommend checking out his blog regularly.

2. Sometimes the vote tallies are different in the same machine. Ed Felten, Professor of Computer Science and Public Affairs and Director of the Center for Information and Technology Policy at Princeton University, writes about inaccurate vote tallies.

3. Without a paper trail there is no way to verify or audit the vote totals, so a recount cannot be performed. The following article from VotersUnite.org show how inaccurate voting machines are and how the Federally mandated accuracy standards are being ignored. As the article concludes, “Voting system vendors are taking billions of tax-payer dollars and, in return, giving us inaccurate, inaccessible, unauditable, unreliable voting equipment that counts our votes in secret.”

4. There is no way to independently verify the software works properly because the vendors claim the software is proprietary and refuse to allow the source code to be checked.

5. DREs security is weak and the machines can be broken into or software can be modified to change the results. The videos on this link from UCSB illustrate the problems very well.

A Sept. 18, 2008 CNN article referring to DREs states “that 10 very vital swing states have significant voting problems that have not been addressed since the last election.” There is no way to insure your vote will be counted on a DRE! To guarantee accurate election results:

1. All votes must be recorded on ballots that can be read and counted by humans,
2. Ballots cast must be saved so a recount can be performed.

These guarantees can only be achieved with paper ballots.  To be sure paper ballots, such as optically scanned ballots and punch cards, can still have problems.  Smudging or light pencil or pen marks can cause optical scanners to have reading problems, although newer technology has greatly reduced these problems.  Punch cards can have the notorious hanging chads, although this problem can be be minimized by having voters checking for and removing any hanging chads they find.

We need to ban DREs and resume using paper ballots for voting.  Write your Senators and Congressperson and insist on paper ballots.  It is the only way to insure fair and accurate elections.   If you want do even more, download this toolkit from Black Box Voting.

Make sure your vote counts, use a paper ballot!