Quick hit number six

Another bit of slightly old but in this case welcome news. This is from the August 9 edition of USA Today, tip via AmericaBlog:

Three years into a national debate over the security and reliability of computerized voting machines, the skeptics are winning.

In the past month, legislatures in five states - Connecticut, Hawaii, New Jersey, New York and Oregon - have passed laws requiring computer-based voting machines to produce a paper backup that can be verified by the voter, according to Electionline.org, which monitors voting systems. That brings to 25 the number of states that require a paper trail.

Fourteen other states and the District of Columbia are considering similar legislation.

Maryland was one of the first states to switch to electronic voting. Linda Lamone, the administrator of the state's Board of Elections says the experience has been good and that "if the proper security measures and procedures are put into place, it's the best system that there is." She also says the state is having studies done of the system's reliability and to see if a paper trail is needed. That's because

[s]o far, Lamone says, the debate "has been based on assumptions, and not facts. We want to know what the facts are."

In other words, Lamone is saying it's the best system there is and she doesn't need facts to know that.

The article also cites the usual whines from touchscreen lovers about how this will just cause problems and it's all so unnecessary and ultimately it comes down to "don't you trust us?"

Actually, no, we don't. And no, we shouldn't. We should never "just trust."