State elections boss defends mandate for electronic voting machines

Alison Hawkes, Times Capital Bureau
03/02/2006
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HARRISBURG -The state's highest ranking elections official characterized the need for paper records of votes from electronic voting machines "a solution in search of a problem."

Secretary of State Pedro Cortes has been under growing pressure by critics of electronic voting machines to mandate, or certify for use in Pennsylvania, voting machine systems that provide paper records of ballots cast electronically for the purposes of a recount, as 26 other states have done.

But questioned by several lawmakers this week at a House Appropriations hearing, Cortes said voter-verified, paper-audit trails, as they are known, could compromise voter privacy and create accessibility problems for disabled voters.

He also said lawmakers have given him no legal clarification on the use of a paper ballot backup in a recount.

more: http://www.timesonline.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16217634&BRD=2305&PAG=461&dept_id=478569&rfi=6