You make truly excellent points.
Why, at least, can't these things be made in America and fully disclosed in their designs and implementations to the American taxpayers who pay for them and the voters who use them?
Most of the e-vote machines are assembled in US. Problem is, with global economy, nobody makes the actual chips in America anymore, just as nobody makes TVs here. Seen a Curtis Mathis set lately?
We could subsidize American chip manufacture and double the price of e-vote machines, or: we could go back to Opscan ballots which with appropriate security, are their own paper trail. We have wasted a huge amount of money on re-inventing the wheel, and now after the Fla. 13th Fubar, Florida has gone full circle and will adopt Opscan for the '08 election. Time's a'wasting, get your Congressman behind the Holt bill.