[Shermy]

"Do they test these new systems with a ballot before the public votes?"

Yes, but there have been slip ups. The programming of the computers allows the voter to see that his or her vote was incorrectly recorded. This will be fixed so the voter does not know, and blithely leaves the polling place believing his vote was properly counted with the high-fangled technology.

Conveniently, there can be no recounts. No "hard evidence", like paper ballots.

[rstevens]

But the election can be declared invalid.