[alloysteel]

The 2000 fiasco in Florida was not because the ballots were "paperless". On the contrary, there was way too MUCH "paper" involved, in the form of the "hanging chads". The objection being raised is that it is much harder to insert a little vote fraud into the newer systems, and this does not bode well for future Democrat vote challenges. Because of the "secret ballot" in wide use in this country, in which it was made difficult to determine exactly which voter selected exactly which candidate, it became harder to apply individual pressure on the voter one way or the other. It also made it difficult to determine if a particular vote had been cast by a legitimate and authorized voter, or was a ballot box stuffer.

Electronic voting maintains the anonymity of the voter, while making it possible to declare a particular ballot either valid or void. You voted after you were assigned a particular number, and if you were ineligible, that vote number is automatically invalidated.

That is the part Democrats don't like.

[Andy_Stephenson]

Hanging chads was a ruse. If you don't ever clan a hole punch...what happens? Same thing with the punch card system. Johns Hopkins University found the punch card system more accurate than touchscreens.

[Andy_Stephenson]

What state and county do you live in?

Bet I can hack your system if you have Diebold or Sequoia...How can I...well both companies left their software on unprotected web sites and it is even now out in the wild for anyone to lean...including the attack points.

[gitmo]

You have valid points. But there are real and big dangers to electronic voting.

Software errors can pile upimmense errors in data. This will be code that is used rarely (every few years). Someone once described software development like building an interstate highway. The only difference being that you can forget to finish a bridge and have thousands of cars pile up beneath the unfinished end of the bridge before anyone realizes the mistake. I've seen this happen. This week, in fact.

It IS more difficult to cheat with electronic voting. But it is easier to cheat with huge numbers with electronic voting. With a paper ballot, you might get by with cheating on a hundred ballots. With digital systems, it's no more difficult to create thousands of bogus votes than it is to create one.