Reply #10: MS: Democrats Want Voting Machines With Printers

[livvy]

Democrats want voting machines with printers
Saturday, February 09, 2008
By VETO F. ROLEY
PASCAGOULA -- The Jackson County Democratic Party wants a printer attached to the Diebold voting machines used by county voters.

The reason, party members said, is because the Diebold machines are not reliable.

Robert Smith, a member of the party's executive committee, said there were problems in 27 states that used the Diebold machines, including issues in Harrison and Hancock counties. In some cases, he said, the machines failed to register large numbers of votes.

"Without a paper trail, there is no way to find out if there is a problem," Smith said. "There is no way to check if the Diebold makes an error."

big snip to the end

Without a ballot printed for every vote, Smith said, there was no way to tell if the Diebold had retained all the votes cast on that machine.

Sims questioned whether it recorded all votes. She said a number of voters selected the candidate they wished to vote for, but walked away without pushing a final button finalizing their choices.

Sanford said that election workers were trained not to intervene in those cases, but to allow the machine to time out. He noted that a vote cast without finalizing the vote did not count.



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