Voting Machine Mess-up Du Jour (Displayed 10/12/04)

Florida. October, 2004. Officials finally acknowledge recount is impossible on paperless machines. After over two years of hearing that it is impossible to do a recount of votes cast on paperless electronic voting machines, Florida officials finally realize that it is impossible to do a recount of votes cast on those machines.*
	A spokesman for Florida Secretary of State Glenda Hood has suggested that Sarasota County and 15 others simply may not be able to conduct manual recounts of contested Nov. 2 general election races with their paperless touch-screen voting machines. "No vendor currently has the capability to develop a piece of equipment, or companion equipment, that can produce a receipt," Jenny Nash told the Pelican Press earlier this week. "When they do, it will be submitted for certification."
Perhaps in another year or two, they will realize that several vendors are already offering such equipment and it has already been qualified by the National Association of State Election Directors.

* Manual recounts may be impossible here. Venice Gondolier Sun. October 6, 2004. By Jack Gurney.

The greater the ignorance,
the greater the dogmatism.
~ William Osler