The Government Accountability Office does not expect the electronic voting
guidelines, which the United States Election Assistance Commission (EAC) is
working on, to have much of an impact in 2006. The EAC is considering
initiatives such as establishing security and reliability standards, and
programs for testing and certifying e-voting systems. E-voting guidelines were
not in place for the 2004 national elections, and problems with the e-voting
machines were widespread. For example, a data storage misunderstanding led to
the loss of approximately 4,400 votes in a county in North Carolina. The
problems have led to concerns about the security and accuracy of e-voting
systems, and critics still note that the machines do not verify whether an
individual's vote has been recorded correctly. Without completed guidelines,
state and local governments might have to move forward with e-voting systems
that lack substantial security and reliability requirements, which could
ultimately compromise the elections and deflate confidence in a fair tally of
votes, the GAO says.
--
Pete Klammer, P.E. / ACM(1970), IEEE,
ICCP(CCP), NSPE(PE), NACSE(NSNE)
3200 Routt Street / Wheat Ridge, Colorado
80033-5452
(303)233-9485 /
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