What I found interesting was the manufacturers of these machines saying "oh, you wanted vote-checking to come with these machines? That would cost more...". Amazing.
Actually, what I'd like to see in that regard [yes I know in my last post I just advocated mechanical voting machines...] would be a system where registration was required for all candidates (no 'out of the blue' write-ins) but where the registration was free-of-charge and available to anyone who wanted it. Essentially what would happen would be that the candidate (or his staffer) would fill in a card with a pre-printed six-digit number and submit that card prior to the election. Persons wishing to vote for that candidate would punch in the number of their choice (the candidate would be responsible for ensuring that voters knew his ID). Beyond the fact that this would make tallying the votes easier, it would also avoid the problems that would occur if someone with a common name were to win a write-in campain.
Actually, what I'd really like to see in that regard would be a system where the ballot doesn't list any candidates and it was the responsibility of the candidates to ensure that voters knew their id number. The issues of which candidates deserve "ballot access" would then go away, since all candidates would be equally eligible.