The World Almanac and Book of Facts 2004 eBay for Dummies Fixing Elections: The Failure of America's Winner-Take-All Politics Too Close to Call : The Thirty-Six-Day Battle to Decide the 2000 Election Trial and Error: The Education of a Courtroom Lawyer Statistics and the Law The Miami Herald Report: Democracy Held Hostage The Unfinished Election of 2000 Deadlock: The Inside Story oF America's Closest Election

• Gore decision repeatedly, said the fact that punch-card voting systems would be used in a half-dozen counties would disenfranchise too many poor and minorities because the method was so inaccurate. ...
• Gore decision, which concerned the lack of standards for hand recounting punch cards, not the relative accuracy of the system. Actually, studies say all the voting systems ­ punch cards, optical scanning, touch screen, etc. ...
• Plus the fact that there’s no way any of the voting systems can handle the recall vote, 135 candidates for governor, plus the multitude of candidates in the March Democrat primary election.

• Voting change in 2004 studied.
• Lawrence eyes replacement of old punch-card ballot system.
• in using touch-screen voting machines by the 2004 election, officials said Wednesday. ...
• Lawrence County has used a punch-card voting system since 1978. ...
• There currently is federal money that will pay up to 95 percent of the cost of buying new voting machines, said Mary "Sis" Wipert, director of the Lawrence County Board of Elections. The federal Election Reform Bill provides states like Ohio the chance to join the electronic voting age as long as the new voting machines are in service prior to the 2004 presidential election.
• It will cost between $750,000 and $1 million to buy the new voting machines, Wipert said. ...
• County election officials have looked at several new voting systems in recent years. ...
• Dick Myers, another election board official, likes the new touch-screen system, calling it the voting machine of the future. ...
• Ohio currently is a hotbed of voting machines sales pitches since 67 of the 88 counties, including Lawrence and Scioto, use the punch-card system which could be eliminated in the next few years, officials said.
• The federal government is putting several billion dollars into the purchase of new voting machines to avoid another election debacle like the one in Florida in the 2000 presidential election where the outcome was in doubt for several weeks.
• Wipert said election officials are looking at the existing systems out there in order to be prepared if the county were to get money to buy new voting machines, she said.

• ACLU Wants Recall Postponed Over Punch Cards.
• "Or, said, Rosenbaum, "Terminator Four: the Demise of the Voting Machines. "Rosenbaum said six California counties with a high percentage of minority voters would have to use old, unreliable punch card machines in October. ... Rosenbaum said the error rate of the punch card machines would disenfranchise voters.

• firm poised to cash in on voting system .
• The firm's president, Kevin Chung, believes his system is better than competitors' alternative voting options. ...
• As New Jersey voters tweak their schedules Tuesday to get to the polls to pick a new governor and fill all 120 legislative seats, a Princeton Junction electronics firm is preparing for a revolution in the voting process.
• What's coming is officially known as "unattended and non- geographic voting. ...
• Avante is poised to cash in on a voting revolution with its new touch-screen electronic voting machine called Vote- Trakker, for which he has several patents pending. ...
• It was inconceivable to his scientific mind that Palm Beach County officials could determine the outcome of the most important election in the world by debating the merits of a chad, those scraps of paper from voting punch cards. ...
• Chung decided to study the field and the leading manufacturers of electronic voting equipment, which include Election Systems & Software (ES&S) of Omaha, Neb. ; Sequoia Pacific Voting Equipment of Exeter, Calif. ...
• Though ES&S and Sequoia dominate electronic voting in New Jersey, Chung believes the rest of the country is fertile ground since close to 80 percent of the nation's voting districts are using obsolete mechanical machines, punch cards or paper ballots.
• As of Tuesday's election, only four New Jersey counties: Camden, Cape May, Mercer and Monmouth, use mechanical, instead of electronic voting machines. Though counties assume the cost of elections, this year the state paid Salem and Sussex counties to forgo their punch-card ballots in favor electronic machines as a result of the Florida recount.
• New Jersey is "very satisfied" with its current voting technology, according to Sharon Young, director of the New Jersey Division of Elections, the group that certifies the reliability of vote tallying methods and election results.
• The next step, said Chung, would be to issue registered voters coded cards for use in generic voting machines located anywhere. ...
• This would allow a voter to touch or speak to a generic voting machine and vote anywhere.
• Not only do voting machines get limited use, but more often than not, voters don't welcome the change.

• Punch-card voting is a no-win system Letters.
• My comments are concerning voting procedures in some parts of Florida and elsewhere in the country that allow errors, and in fact, expect that there will be uncounted votes, but does not do a recount unless required to. ...
• I have been in the data-processing business for over 30 years and spent many years handling punched cards. ...
• Any process that is used to read those cards must take into account the fact that some punches will remain attached to the card and may, in fact, be pushed back into their original position in the process of being repeatedly handled and run through electronic readers. ...
• After this election is over I certainly hope that all voting procedures that involve punched cards will be thoroughly reviewed, and if at all possible, replaced with more accurate systems. ...

• It seems reasonable for a court to postpone an election long enough to permit the installation of fair voting systems, rather than going through with error-prone machines and then trying to sort out the mess afterwards.
• Er… aren’t the 14th and 15th amendments the ones most applicable to voting? One could argue that the 1st amendment already has been limited in the electoral process because one can make rules about campaigning (cannot update website with X days of election, can spend X amount of money). ...
• I must admit to being curious: Why is there any reason to believe that an election utilizing electronic voting machines which neither the voters nor the elections workers have any experience with, will be any less error prone than an election utilizing punch cards which the elections workers, and almost all of the voters, DO have experience with?.
• We’re to believe that voters who can’t follow the directions for voting with punch cards, (And to be blunt, the problem IS exactly that, not error prone machines, but error prone voters. ) will instantly demonstrate competence with computerized voting machines? Puleeze! If you believe that, I’ve got a bridge to sell you.
• Bottom line, IMO: Screwing up your ballot because you’re stupid, ignorant, or careless, isn’t a violation of your voting rights, because you did it to yourself. ...
• ) (3) I don’t like computerized voting myself, but optical scan ballots have been shown to reduce error rates. ... Gore, there seems no alternative but to rule that it violates equal protection to have voting systems with varying error rates. ...
• ” However, were the punchcard voting machines located everywhere during the last election? Are the electronic voting machines which were to be used on October 7th new? If so, then the whole “we’ve used these machines before” b. ...
• That is, if anything easier to use than punch cards, inherently leaves a paper trail to enable recounts, and if implemented right, catches most catagories of mistakes before the voter leaves the polling place, so they can fix them. Optical scan is currently the best voting system available.
• But it’s my understanding that the replacement for the cards isn’t going to be optical scan, but fully computerized voting machines, which are rather further out of the average person’s experience, and critically, do not provide a paper trail for recounts. ...
• I can’t fathom the reason why touch-screen voting is so popular; the lack of a paper trail is terrifying.
• Gore decision was its forthright refusal to set a precedent for voting rights cases. ...
• (4) Computerized voting doesn’t have a paper trail, but neither did the old lever machines. ...
• Aphrael, on my cynical days I suspect that touch screen voting machines are popular with elections officals and incumbant politicians, precisely because of their frightening features. ...

• Error-prone punch cards jeopardize recall votes .
• 7 recall election could be conducted properly using punch-card voting machines in Los Angeles and other urban counties.
• However, voting officials have said there is no time to replace them before the scheduled recall election.
• Woods acknowledged that the punch-card system was "obsolete, antiquated and unacceptable" and had been decertified for use by the state as of March 4, 2004. ...
• "I haven't seen evidence that would indicate education can overcome" the problems with the punch-card machines, he said. ...
• Wilson acknowledged that the punch-card machines suffer from "an error rate nearly double that of other polling technologies," but the election had to be held by Oct. ...
• 7, more than 40,000 voters will have their votes voided as a result of errors generated by the punch-card machines. ...

•     Rate cards.
• Create elections fund: Bill needed to trade punch-cards for scanners.
• 3 million of which is intended to underwrite the replacement of punch-card ballots in seven counties - including Lane - that still use them. Punch-card ballots, as the nation learned in Florida's 2000 election fiasco, have an unacceptably high rate of error. Congress intends for states to replace the punch-cards with more reliable voting devices, such as ballots that are marked by pencil and read by optical scanners.
• To give county clerks and state elections officials time to implement the new federal requirements - especially switching from punch-card ballots in time for the 2004 elections - HB 2145 should be passed by both chambers of the Legislature and sent to the governor for signature.

• 'First real test' of voting reformThe Associated Press Updated: 1:20 p. ...
• 9 billion law that help or require states to replace outdated voting equipment, establish statewide voter registration databases, require better voter identification and provide provisional ballots so qualified voters wonâ ™t be turned away from polling places.
• Hoyerâ ™s office said Missouri will still mostly use the punch card machines that were at the center of the contested Florida vote in 2000. Florida has since eliminated its punch cards.
• South Carolina will continue to use punch cards in 10 counties, while Arizona, which had punch card systems in nine counties in 2000, will use only optiscan machines.

• What will replace the punch cards?.
• Experts aren't wild about electronic voting systems, either. Here is a piece from the Contra Costa Times, and here is a story in the Chronicle reviewing the case against punch cards.

• Subject: Heres some more on punch cards.
• Punch cards are so unreliable private industry was only too happy to find other data entry methods when they became available.
• Counties that still utilize punch cards as a data entry method are in the dark ages and inherently run dirty data processing operations.
• Punch cards received from areas outside the controlled data processing operation are left to become climatized for a couple of hours prior to any operations being performed on them. This allows the cards to regain original thickness.
• Additionally operators will riffle each batch of cards prior to feeding them into the read hopper thereby eliminating sticking cards and hanging chads.
• Lastly, good data processing operations using punch cards have a "test deck" which is periodically run through the card reader to see if the equipment records the same results as the pre-calculated "test deck". ...
• >>honor of working with tabulating equipment(punch.
• >>cards) knows well the problems involved with such a.
• >>Punch Cards:.
• >>Punch cards are mass manufactured and with all.
• >>these cards are DOA (dead on arrival). ...
• >>in a bad punch by the stylus. ...
• >>operations the machine operator will riff the cards.
• >>sticking cards and cards with easily removed chads.
• >>Cards produced using mechanical punching equipment.

• by Ed Fletcher Officials Stress Need for Prop 41 to Fix Voting Machine Problems.
• : The push to replace aging voting equipment was born in Florida, but long before the now-infamous 2000 election, the experts who spend their days thinking about elections knew there were potential problems with punch-card voting machines. ... The $200 million Voting Modernization Bond Act of 2002 would offer counties $3 in state money for every $1 counties put towards buying qualified ballot-counting equipment. The money would help counties move from 1960s-era voting machines to more sophisticated ballot-counting machines. ... "Obviously after what happened in Florida we have to bring our voting machinery in the late 20th century and then into the 21st century," said Harvey Rosenfield of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights. ... Doug Louis, executive director of the Election Center, an organization of elections officials, says people just lost faith in punch cards after Florida. ... Not everyone agrees that new voting equipment is needed. ... The Yes on Prop 41 campaign effort is financed by Sequoia Pacific Voting Equipment, a touch-screen voting machine manufacturer that has given the campaign all of its money: $100,000. Nine California counties are under the gun to replace their punch-card election equipment. ... 12 is forcing California to get rid of its chad-producing voting machines by the 2004 elections, more than a year before a state-imposed deadline. Secretary of State Bill Jones had announced late last year that Florida-style punch-card voting machines could not be used after July 2005. The counties needing to replace punch-card voting machines are: Alameda, Mendocino, Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Clara, Shasta and Solano.

• The Voting System.
• Voting is a system. ...
• The challenge is to make voting less prone to error and more secure. ...
• The voting system in the United States consists of four components: voter authentication, communication of voter preferences, the counting of these preferences, and security of the voting system.
• To vote, people either go to public polling places on an appointed day and record their preferences on paper ballots or on voting machines, or people request an absentee ballot well before the appointed day. ... Thousands of local governments and a few state governments make decisions about which voting technology to use and what the ballot will look like. ...
• Over the course of the twentieth century, voting equipment has evolved so as to speed up the count. ...
• Electronic counting procedures (punch cards, scanners, and electronic voting machines) make the count difficult to observe.
• The four components of the voting system are supported by an extensive, decentralized administrative operation. ...
• voting system have this particular structure? Much of the voting system today—secret.
• This question cuts to the heart of the problems of how to design easy-to-use and secure voting systems.
• Secrecy and anonymity of the ballot also provide important checks against coercion, against a person being forced, lured or intimidated into voting one way or another by others. ...
• Many of these reasons have little to do with voting technology or the voting system at all. ...
• Even still, it is evident from studies conducted by the Census Bureau that many millions of registered voters who do not vote face obstacles to voting that could be lowered by correcting problems in the registration rolls or by making voting more convenient.
• First, registration systems are intended not only to ensure that voting is confined to eligible participants, but also to ensure that voters vote where they are supposed to. ...
• National voter identification cards are sometimes offered as an alternative to voter registration. Thanks to Napoleon, most European countries have citizen identification cards. These are used for voting, as well as many other government activities. ... Americans view national identity cards as undemocratic, giving the government too much ability to monitor us.

• computers Subject: Punch cards Date: Thu, 7 Feb 2002 19:49:45 -0600 X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 5. ... computers:101179 did you see today's (feb7th) NY Times Circuits section punch cards are still being used! a few companies thought it too expensive or unnecessary to modernize -- Philo website: www. ... computers Subject: Re: Punch cards Date: 7 Feb 2002 18:35:45 -0800 Organization: Trailing-Edge Technologies Lines: 21 Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: p-261. ... > >did you see today's (feb7th) NY Times >Circuits section > >punch cards are still being used! >a few companies thought it too expensive >or unnecessary to modernize I was interviewed by the author (Mr. ... computers Subject: Re: Punch cards Date: Thu, 07 Feb 2002 20:41:56 -0800 Organization: http://www. ... > > > >did you see today's (feb7th) NY Times > >Circuits section > > > >punch cards are still being used! > >a few companies thought it too expensive > >or unnecessary to modernize > > I was interviewed by the author (Mr. ... computers Subject: Re: Punch cards Date: Fri, 08 Feb 2002 04:51:34 +0000 Organization: Bell Labs / Lucent Technologies Lines: 20 Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: 135. ... computers:101127 Philo wrote: > > did you see today's (feb7th) NY Times > Circuits section > > punch cards are still being used! > a few companies thought it too expensive > or unnecessary to modernize Currently at http://www. ... com (Steve Myers) Subject: Re: Punch cards Reply-To: nospam@nowhere. ... computers:101167 When I started with the Helicopter's division of Boeing back in 1991, I was amazed to discover they still used punch cards for time reporting. ... They kept using that system until 1996 or so, punching about 3 1/2 boxes of cards every week, and finally retired all of the card equipment.

• E-voting or punch cards?.
• SANTA CRUZ — Electronic voting and increased odds of voter fraud vs. punch cards and hanging chads.
• The forum was quite timely, with the Senate voting Thursday to spend $1. 5 billion to implement the president’s request for improvements to the national voting system.
• About 40 people — mostly computer scientists, elections officials and those who try to get out the vote in San Mateo, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties — attended the electronic voting conference.
• Dill said the federal, state and local governments should make sure that any electronic voting system be secure enough to block out hackers, as well as have the means to create a paper trail so recounts, such as those that received national attention in the 2000 presidential election, can take place if there is any question of how many votes a candidate or issue actually received.
• "With current touch-screen technology, you don’t get a chance to see the ballot, so you don’t get to see what happened," Dill said, saying that it is possible for an electronic voting system’s designer or a hacker to rig the computer so that it electronically shows the voter how they think they voted, but changes the vote to the liking of the software designer or hacker come time to tally the votes.
• He suggested electronic voting systems come with printers so a paper ballot can be printed and filed.

• ÐÏ à¡± á > þÿ £ ¦ þÿÿÿ ¤ ¢ ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿì¥Á G ¿ z3 bjbj Ù Ù "n ì³ ì³ w/ ÿÿ ÿÿ ÿÿ ^ ^ ^ r r r r r ~ $ r — ¶ ¾ ¾ ¾ ¾ ¾ � � � \ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ $ M ô A – ^ � ™ � � � ½ ¾ ¾ Û ¾ ½ ½ ½ � 8 ¾ ^ ¾ \ r r � \ ½ F ½ V @ F ^ \ ¾ ¢ À#ô�VãÁ r r ­ P VOTE Project Proposal Fred Bednarski, Art Lander, Angela Tarango, Ziao Nguyen, Dong Ton Introduction The publicity generated concerning the voting mechanisms in use today around the country, and here in San Diego County, following the 2000 Presidential Election, called into question the efficiency of these systems. The familiar punch card system produced what many considered an unacceptably large number of spoiled ballots. These included voting for more than one candidate for the same office, ballots with "hanging chads" which could not be counted by the automatic card readers, and confusing ballots. ... Also, if a recount were required it can be done quicker and would not be subjected to standards requiring a visual inspection of the punch card and open to subjective interpretation. ... This would produce a more accurate reflection of the voting public's will. ... 35 million punch card ballots, each costing $. ... Current System The current system consists of voter punch card ballots. ... The punch cards themselves are generic and not costly in themselves. ... Voting takes place at various polling places, ranging from public facilities to private neighborhood homes. Distribution of voting booths and voting materials to the polls is well coordinated by the Registrar and is conducted with very few problems. ... Once collected the punch cards are run through card readers and the voting data is tallied and stored in a computer database.

• 1 Voting.
• Subject to constitutional requirements established by case law, and in some states to review by the United States Department of Justice to ensure compliance with the federal Voting Rights Act, the government of each state draws the boundaries for the House districts within the state's borders. ...
• There are also five members without voting rights (except in committee votes): delegates from the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, and the U. ...
• If there is a floor vote, or a quorum call, the electronic voting system is activated and a sequence of bells rings throughout the House side of the Capitol and in the House office building complex. ... Members also have to punch in for quorum calls, which can be demanded by any member if (as is usually the case) fewer members than a quorum are present on the floor. ...
• Voting .
• Members vote by inserting a plastic voting card, which doubles as a photo ID, into terminals located on the backs of seats in the House chamber. ... the member abstains from voting) or to register his or her presence at a quorum call. ...
• If the voting system is down, either the clerk calls the roll and members enunciate their votes, or a "teller" vote is held in which the members fill our red or green or yellow voting cards and give them to the clerk. ...

• Editorial: No more punch cards .
• ” Voter comment cards at precincts so people can express frustrations.
• ” A standardized voting system, such as the optical scan systems used in St. ... Duval County's punch card system, with more than 20,000 voting twice for president, had an error rate of 9 percent. ... ''Punch cards are gone. We're not going to waste our time on punch cards. ...

• E-voting .
• This could be done, for example, using the GEMS vote-counting computer located in each e-voting county. ...
• Posted on March 07, 2004 in E-voting | Permalink | Comments (0) .
• We must have control over our voting software.
• The trend towards voting computers is irresistible, but dangerous. Voting computers are like a Trojan horses, they look attractive, but we donâ ™t know what is inside them. ...
• We cannot allow these shadow persons to control our voting. ... In practical terms, this means the source code for our voting computers must be openly available, not proprietary secrets of the voting machine companies. ...
• Our voting software should be developed by public entitles and exposed to intense public scrutiny. And only that software should be used on our voting computers. ... But our voting software must be more secure than Windows, we donâ ™t need viruses in our voting software. ...
• We should go ahead and use the new voting machines that are available, with some minor improvements, such a printed backup ballots - because our present voting technologies, are defective. ... Most of our present technologies, such as punch cards, can be easily and inexpensively recalibrated. ... We need to improve our peopleware (our voting process) before we tackle the intricacies of software. ...
• Posted on February 09, 2004 in E-voting | Permalink | Comments (0) .
• " That was the title of the self-congratulatory press release issued by Diebold in the wake of a report that found its voting machines to be horribly insecure. According to scientists at Raba Technologies, the consulting firm hired to hack into Diebold electronic voting system, it was an "easy matter" to use the system to steal an election. ...

• All our elections, from mayor to President, are counted locally, in about ten thousand five hundred political jurisdictions, and gradually, since 1964, different kinds of computer-based voting systems have been installed in town after town, city after city, county after county. ... Do the quick-as-a-wink, computerized systems count accurately? Are they vulnerable to fraud, as well, even fraud of a much more dangerous, centralized kind? Is the most widely used computerized system, the Votomatic, which relies on computer punch-card ballots, disenfranchising hundreds of thousands of voters? It appears that since 1980 errors and accidents have proliferated in computer-counted elections. ... Harty, who was until recently the director of voting systems and standards for Illinois, told me last December in Springfield. ... Naegele, who is the State of California's chief expert on certifying voting systems and is also the president of his own computer consulting firm, has been hired by the Federal Election Commission (F. ... Last spring, in San Francisco, at a national conference of local-election officials, I asked Naegele whether computerized voting as it is now practiced in the United States is secure against fraud. ... I asked him whether he regarded as adequate the typical fifty-five-ballot "logic-and-accuracy public test" that is conducted locally on the Votomatic computerized punch-card vote-counting system-which about four in ten voters will use on November 8th-and he said, "No. ... It's not security!" The old mechanical machines prevent citizens from "overvoting"-voting for more candidates in a race than they are entitled to vote for-but the Votomatic systems do not. Not only can people using these systems overvote but election workers, if they are dishonest, can punch extra holes in ballots to invalidate votes that have been correctly cast or to cast votes themselves in races the voter has skipped. ... The computerized punch-card voting system is "a barrier to exercise of the franchise," and causes "technological disenfranchisement," Neil Heighberger, the dean of the College of Social Sciences at Xavier University, in Cincinnati, concluded in a recent study he made of the subject. ... Louis, declared that the computerized punch-card voting system as it has been used in that city denies blacks an equal opportunity with whites to participate in the political process. ... Roberts, a black candidate for president of the Board of Aldermen who in March of last year had lost to a white by a fourth of one per cent in a city election in which voting positions on ballots in the black wards were more than three times as likely not to be counted as those in white wards.

• Our purpose in doing so is decidedly nonpartisan: We must work together to help remedy the voting inefficiencies that continue to face our election system, and thereby restore public confidence in our election process. ...
• First, punch-card voting systems must go.
• Introduced in 1964, punch cards are still the most common method of voting in the United States today, with about one-third of all voters using them. ... However, technology has advanced by leaps and bounds in the last 40 years, and more reliable voting methods are available.
• Punch cards have the potential for a much higher rate of error than other voting systems. ... Therefore, with few exceptions, we should work expeditiously to help state and local election officials get rid of punch-card voting systems.
• , the spoilage rate for punch cards last November was 6. ...
• The state legislature passed a sweeping election reform measure in mid-June that, among other things, would ban punch cards and require counties to purchase or lease electronic or optical scan equipment to be used in each precinct by 2002. ...
• The second principle that should guide us goes hand in glove with the first: The federal government should help states and localities replace unreliable and outdated voting technologies such as punch cards. ...

• Cassidy: Brace yourself, more punch lines about punch cards.
• Yes, a three-judge panel decided Monday that the election needs to be delayed because voters aren't smart enough to work punch-card ballots.
• • If the voting procedure used to elect Gov. ...

• As the public clamors for fair and accurate voting systems, now is the time to take action. ...
• The most pressing state initiative, however, is the replacement of unreliable and obsolete voting systems. ... In the November 2000 election, five different voting systems were used in Florida alone. ...
• Just weeks after the November vote, Wisconsin election officials voted to ban punch card balloting, the system made infamous by Florida's "hanging chads. " The Nebraska legislature created a commission to study their voting systems. ...
• Currently, counties and municipalities use a myriad of voting systems. Each is described in a Primer on Voting Systems below. ...
• None of the current voting systems is perfect; each produce ballots that are invalidated because of overvotes (punched twice) or undervotes (no punch recorded). Problems with voting systems were recognized as early as the 1970s, and as a result, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) established voluntary "voting system standards. " But those standards, last revised in 1990, approved the use of "Votomatic"-style pre-scored punch cards. Only 31 states comply with FEC `s outdated voting stystem standards. ...
• Florida complied with FEC standards, and yet its voting systems counted ballots very inconsistently. Florida counties which used "Votomatic"-style punch cards had an error rate of 3. ...
• Brevard County, Florida, provides a good example of the unequal quality of voting systems. When the county used punch cards in 1996, 2. ...
• Clearly, voting systems must be upgraded, but it is not so clear which technologies should be adopted. ...

• Punch cards cited in voter omissions .
• Voters using certain types of punch-card ballots were more likely than other voters to skip, miss or bungle the Tuesday ballot question on whether to recall Gov. ...
• The University of California Berkeley professor who conducted the study, and is a leading critic of punch-card ballots, blamed the discrepancies on design flaws. But Los Angeles County's top election official defended her county's punch cards and suggested that large numbers of Los Angeles voters may have intentionally ignored the recall question. ...
• Brady's study says an estimated 176,000 votes were "lost" Tuesday because of the punch-card ballots' flawed design. ...
• Brady's earlier studies of punch-card voting were used as ammunition by the ACLU in its attempts to postpone the Tuesday vote. ...
• The five counties with the highest residual rates all used pre-scored punch-card ballots, according to the study. ...
• The Los Angeles County registrar also acknowledged that pre-scored punch-card users have a tougher time double-checking their work. Unlike optical-scanning ballots, neither the recall question nor the names of the candidates appear directly on these punch cards, meaning voters looking over their cards on Tuesday only saw a series of rectangular holes. ...
• While San Diego is among the counties that use pre-scored punch-card machines, a number of others use punch-card ballots that are not pre-scored. ...

• com - Newsletter Opinion - Voting technology needs an upgrade .
• Voting technology needs an upgrade.
• Polls say Americans are skeptical about the prospect of voting online, and last Tuesday, waiting in a packed church to darken the ovals on my ballot, I was among them. ... But later, missing ballot boxes, invalidated punch cards, rumors of voter intimidation and snail-mail ballots painfully illustrated that the process needs to catch up with the times. ...
• I had no idea that states still used so many anachronistic voting methods. ... 3 percent of voters used optical scan sheets (black-in the ovals) or electronic voting kiosks. ... 3 percent used punch cards. What gave me even greater pause is the fact that the FEC didn't even publish performance and test standards--which are voluntary--for voting equipment until 1990! (Yes, Florida was on the list of adopters. ...
• Like the lowly punch card, it's just a tool. ...

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