Voting Tech Errors Could Be a Deal Breaker in Swing States, Report Says

http://www.govtech.com/policy-management/Voting-Tech-Errors-Swing-States-Report.html

Overall, the states’ rankings placed them into one of four categories: good, generally good, needs improvement and inadequate.

Pamela Smith, president of the Verified Voting Foundation and one of the report’s authors, said states without verifiable paper records for votes cast in elections did not score as well in the survey as states that do keep paper records. For some states, like swing-state Pennsylvania, a combination exists since some counties in Pennsylvania keep verifiable voting records, while other counties in the state only use paperless electronic voting systems.

Smith said although some counties obtain paper records, if the state encountered problems during an election that would require voting record review, Pennsylvania would have no way to perform an accurate audit or recount since votes from the paperless machines could permanently be lost.

“They have no independent record of voter intent that they can compare with the software count,” she said.

Errors in the voting process for swing states could wrongfully change the outcome of which candidate is elected into office.