Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a law

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

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From: Mary Eisenhart <marye () yoyow com>
Date: September 28, 2004 5:39:40 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: fyi if you think it's IP worthy

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/09/28/ 
financial1557EDT0091.DTL

(09-28) 14:23 PDT SAN FRANCISCO (AP) --

 Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a law requiring that all electronic  
voting machines produce paper records of every ballot cast, beginning  
in 2006.

 Under the bill, signed Monday, voters will not be able to touch or  
keep the records; instead, election officials will put them in lock  
boxes in case a recount becomes necessary.

 Computer scientists and voter advocates have warned that touch screens  
and other electronic voting machinery are vulnerable to hackers,  
software bugs and hardware failures, and that a paper trail is needed  
in case something goes wrong.

 Legislators in nearly two dozen states have introduced similar bills.  
New Hampshire, Illinois and Oregon have laws requiring paper backups  
but those states have few, if any, touch-screen voting terminals.

 By contrast, about 4.5 million registered voters in 10 California  
counties are eligible to vote on paperless terminals in November,  
representing one in 10 of all voters nationwide who cast electronic  
ballots.

 "This will definitely help advance the paper trail issue elsewhere,"  
said Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation.  
"California represents a huge part of the voting equipment market, and  
all the major vendors have equipment here. If they want to keep their  
business here, they'll have to come up with a paper trail feature."



  
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