Reply #6: Radio Ralph: Voting Machines [View All]

[Melissa G]

http://www.am850.com/commentary/archives/2007/02/radio_ralph_voting_machines.asp
Radio Ralph: Voting Machines
Tuesday, February 13, 2007

It is a rare occasion when folks from the hinterlands, like those of us who live in North Central Florida, cannot only make decisions better than those from the supposedly sophisticated areas of the state down south, but can also gloat that we were absolutely right and they were absolutely wrong.

I am speaking, of course, about the little matter of voting machines. Four counties in the southern half of the state chose touch- screen voting machines, at a cost of many millions of dollars. Those of us in the northern half of the state, for the most part, chose to go with optical-scan voting machines.

The touch- screen machines do not produce a paper record of the ballot. The optical-scanners do. The touch- screen machines are cumbersome to move in and out of the voting precincts. The optical scanners aren’t. The touch- screen machines cannot be increased in number for elections with big turnouts, without there being huge equipment costs. The optical- scanner voting booths can be increased by adding a small folding table that costs peanuts. The touch- screen machines are a storage nightmare. The optical-scanners take up very little storage space, because they fold up into tiny tables.

And – and this is a big “and” – the touch-screen machines are very expensive. The optical-scanners are cheap.

People make slightly more mistakes with the optical-scanners than with the touch machines, but the mistakes can be corrected or checked later, because there is a paper record.
more...
http://www.am850.com/commentary/archives/2007/02/radio_ralph_voting_machines.asp