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New Machines No Improvement

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 27, 2008

Having voted in yesterday's primary, I can't believe the state and local governments spent all those millions for the optical-scanning system. The touch-screen was less cumbersome - one machine per booth vs. two booths, paper, pen and folder - and confirmed who you voted for before you "went final." Correcting a mistake on the touch-screen was easy; now you have to go through an error process and do the whole system over. You aren't warned about undervotes at all.

And it seems to me that until you can be almost 100 percent positive that only authorized voters vote, the touch-screen was fine. Electoral fraud is a way bigger problem than not having a paper trail.

We already place our very lives in the "hands" of computers - cars, planes, traffic lights, home electricity - and we could have gotten touch-screens right.

We really blew it here.

ERNEST LANE

Trinity

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