Md. Gov. Doubts State's Election System

[deadparrot]

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Gov. Robert Ehrlich, citing concerns over electronic voting machines and a new early voting law passed by Democrats over his veto, said Wednesday that he no longer has confidence in the state's ability to conduct fair and accurate elections this year.

In a letter to the state election board, Ehrlich said he supports a paper ballot or some kind of paper trail that voters could use to verify that their ballots cast on touchscreen machines were recorded and counted accurately.

"Right now, the state of Maryland is not prepared to conduct an election, let alone early voting," Ehrlich, a Republican, told reporters after meeting with House Speaker Michael Busch, a Democrat, to discuss his concerns.

At issue is a new law that will allow voters to cast ballots at a limited number of precincts in the week before the September primary and November general elections. The intent is to encourage more people to vote.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060216/ap_on_el_st_lo/electronic_voting

[wtbymark]

1. A republican asking for paper ballots? interesting n/t

[yellowcanine]

2. Hairlick is just looking for an excuse when he loses this fall. He is

setting up a court challenge to the results if the election is close and he loses. Why is he bringing this up now about no paper trail? It has never bothered him before.

[Mithras61]

3. Sounds to me like...

Erlich is gonna loose. The noise about paper ballots only ever comes up when they don't think they can get away with fixing the electronic vote.

[blm]

4. True. Sounds like he's using the dustup on paper ballots to cover his own

complicity in past races, too. Didn't Maryland have alot more Bush votes than they had registered Republicans? How likely is THAT?

We all knew they padded their vote totals all over the country to get a perceived popular vote win.

[DaveinMD]

5. there are more Bush votes

because there are a ton of conservatives still registered as Democrats on the Eastern Shore and in Southern Maryland.