May. 19, 2003
Voters must have faith in the vote count

By Warren Slocum

COMPUTERIZED voting is here to stay. The only question is: Should we blindly trust touch-screen voting systems to capture and count our votes correctly?

Opinions vary. Surprisingly, some elections professionals say that touch-screen voting systems can be trusted. But when voters are given the choice, most say, ``absolutely not.'' And the computer scientists who have studied this issue say no way.

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Why should California require that voters check their electronic votes against a paper summary ballot?

The answer is so that California can have an accurate vote count and avoid the chaotic election scenarios that other states have experienced. The verification of the vote can help ensure the integrity of election results.

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The choice of providing voters an opportunity to check their votes is upon us. The consequences are serious. One computer scientist has said, ``Touch-screen voting systems have fatal security flaws so dangerous that they could allow people with access to the software to modify election results on a national level, and without detection. It is a matter of national security that we fix these flaws.''

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