Voter Technology

The focus on all the voting and elections has led me to post a blog on the current "state-of-the-art" election systems being put into place throughout the U.S.
They all have pluses and minuses so I thought it would be interesting to compare the various technologies in terms for the average person. There are actually very few companies whose technology is used:

Premier Election Solutions - previously known as Diebold Election Systems
Election Systems & Software - a subsidiary of McCarthy Group Inc.
Sequoia Voting Systems - now bought by a group of private investors 11/07
Liberty Election Systems

ESS, Premier, and Sequoia all offer end-to-end tools to support the election process from voter registration to vote counting.

Electronic Poll Systems -
ESS, Premier, Sequoia, and Liberty all offer free-standing electronic polling systems. All systems provide printed record as an option.

Only Premier and Sequoia offer optical scan systems.

The problem that occurs most often in complaints is the lack of a paper trail - however, this is not STANDARD on any of these systems! Counties have choices in many cases as to what options they want to implement - causing a problem in consistency within a given state.
The second problem that occurs is the lack of any backup - so if a machine goes down there is no backup system in-place to accept ballots - like paper ballots.

One of the things that should be considered by the Federal Elections is an overarching set of requirements that must be put into place throughout the states:
- paper trail requirements
- security requirements
- backup procedures required
- ADA compliance
Ability to securely tabulate all ballots electronically - paper versions as well as electronic.

This would reduce the problems and complaints throughout.