Ars Technica: Florida to scrap touchscreens; convictions in Ohio recount-rigging
Rumor has it that Florida governor Charlie Crist will announce tomorrow that his state plans to scrap tens of millions of dollars worth of touchscreen voting equipment and move to a system based completely on optical scan ballots. The Miami Herald claims that the total tab for overhauling the states electoral system could be as high as $35 million.
I hope the rumors are true. Optical scan means that voters can see what they voted and mechanical and manual recounts are possible. While there’s still a danger of someone tampering with the optical scanner software/firmware, there’s at least a possiblity of audits.
On the vote rigging, it’s worth reading the entire original article to hear how lame-brained it was. It’s sad to think that the higher officials who ordered/sanctioned/approved or were oblivious to this behavior when they shouldn’t have been, got away scot-free. While the vast majority of voting officials are hard-working honest folks, everything they do has to be transparent and above-board to avoid scandals like this.