:      I just want to point out that not all voting machines are computerized. Here in New York, we use MECHANICAL voting machines. Pulling the lever for a candidate increments a mechanical counter. When the polls close, the front panel of the voting machine is removed and the totals on the counters are read off and recorded on paper, in triplicate. I have participated in "counting" votes this way, and can tell you that the process is very straightforward and quite resistant to fraud.

These voting machines of course stand in sharp contrast to the computerized voting machines being discussed. Since the integrity of computerized voting depends entirey on the software used in them, and since checking the software of each machine is not something that can easily be done, probably computerized voting shoudn't be used. Perhaps some type of hybrid machine coud be deveoped, where the counting of votes would not be under software control, but where the resuts could nevertheless be transmitted electronically to a central site as soon as the polls closed. Paper records of the votes at each machine would still be kept, and would be compared to the electronically-transmitted numbers later in the week, in order to serve as a check on their integrity.