Printers Wanted for Voting Machines
Reported By:  Keith Whitney
Web Editor: Manav Tanneeru
Last Modified: 3/4/2004 11:14:04 PM

Though Georgia Secretary of State Cathy Cox said the state’s 26,000 elections voting machines performed without any problems on Super Tuesday earlier this week, some lawmakers Thursday said the machines may nonetheless be vulnerable to fraud and wanted printed receipts to serve as proof to the computer tabulation.

Senate bill 500, sponsored by conservative Republicans and members of the Green Party and libertarians, would add printers to Georgia’s 26,000 computerized voting booths so that officials have the ability to review any election.

"What Senate bill 500 does is say there ought to be a paper trail. There ought to be a ballot like we did before that is cast for every single individual, so that if there's a problem or a question there's a check, said state Senator Tom Price (R-Roswell).

Supporters of the bill say virtual voting machines can be programmed for fraud or can be hacked in to change results by using viruses that usually traverse the Web such as a Trojan Horse.

"I was a poll worker, so it's very easy at the end of the day to remove the data card, to slip the data card in your pocket. pull another data card out and then enter into the system,” said Rick Day of the Libertarian Party. “When they enter it into the system, it will read cards already read, but by that time the Trojan virus has already been put into the system.”

Cox, however, said that sometimes the paper trail itself can be manipulated. “The paper opens so many opportunities for mischief not by a computer scientist but by anybody who would be inclined to mess up an election."

Cox said independent labs with NASA-grade scientists certify the state’s machines, which are than certified by state experts.

“We have our computer experts primarily at Kennesaw State University and local election officials working with them who literally try to destroy these machines in four to six weeks and tear them apart and find a way to tamper with them,” Cox said.

Adding printers to the machines could cost as much as $13 million, though Price believes it would be far less than that figure. He said would like to see the printers in place for the November elections. The bill, however, only has a few days left to make it out of committee.