Some Maryland residents may file a lawsuit against the state to force it to make its electronic voting machines print a record of the vote to leave a paper trail, according to an Associated Press article.
Printing a record of the vote would solve two problems. First, it would leave a paper trail, something that would be good to have in case there was a recount. Second, it would allow the voters to make sure they voted as they meant to and that the system was not being hacked into.
Because the machines are relatively new, there should be a backup system anyway while the machines are being tested to work out any bugs or in case there is a malfunction.
| The issue: Some Maryland residents want the electronic voting machines to print out the votes to leave a paper trail. |
Electronic voting machines do make things easier, and hopefully will prevent another fiasco like what happened in Florida in the 2000 presidential election.
But adding a paper trail to that system will mean extra insurance, and the more secure and accurate the results, the better.
Aviel Rubin, an associate professor of computer science at Johns Hopkins University who helped write a report about the electronic machines, said the paper votes could be compared to the electronic votes to make sure everything added up, according to the AP article.
“What we need is something the average voter can have confidence in,” he was quoted in the article. “I don’t see any substitute for paper.”
With fewer people turning out to vote, the last thing needed is for them not to feel their votes are going through correctly, and having a paper trail might help assure people that their votes do count.
