AP on hearing in DC

["Margit Johansson" <margitjo@xxxxxxxxx>]

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/politics/15630238.htm

Congress hears about electronic voting issues with elections near
DAVID HAMMER
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - The chairman of a House committee and several witnesses
at a hearing Thursday punched holes in the idea that paper records of
voters' selections will solve a slew of problems with new electronic
voting machines.

The criticism comes a little more than a month before most of the
country uses new computerized balloting.

Rep. Vernon Ehlers, R-Mich., chairman of the Administration
Committee, adopted the "Got paper?" catchphrase of activists calling
for paper audits of votes.

Ehlers pointed to a photo of a poll worker in the 2000 Florida
recount, his one eye appearing massive as it peered through a
magnifying glass at a punch-card ballot.

"You can see this man has 'got paper,'" Ehlers said. "Simply saying
let's use paper does not mean the problems go away."

Keith Cunningham, elections director in Allen County, Ohio, and the
former leader of the Ohio Association of County Elections Officials,
testified that a recount of the paper records in Cuyahoga County,
which includes Cleveland, showed massive failure of the printouts.

A bill proposed by Rep. Rush Holt, 
D-N.J., and backed by more than
200 lawmakers, would require paper audit trails for all new
electronic voting machines, which will be used by about 80 percent of
voters in the coming Nov. 7 elections.

The election will determine whether Democrats can take control of the
U.S. House, and 33 U.S. Senate races and 36 governor races are on ballots.

But activists have filed lawsuits in at least nine states contending
the new electronic voting machines are not secure and prone to as
many errors as punch cards and other mechanical voting methods.

One of the witnesses Thursday was Princeton University Professor
Edward Felten, who said computerized voting machines made by
Ohio-based Diebold Inc. could be hacked easily.