The new electronic voting machines produced by Diebold for last year's Georgia election were re-programmed, secretly, by the company just before the Georgia election in which the governor was elected in defiance of all previous polls. One contractor tells stories of 25% percent of his machines crashing while in use -- losing everything on them. The machines were never re-certified by independent testing authorities. This with a system which produces no means to verify the election afterwards. -- no paper trail, no auditing means at all.
The effect is the same as if a politician stole the election: the count of the ballots does not reflect the ballots cast. The wrong person takes office, against the will of the people.
If we don't trust the computers, we should not trust the results of the election, and we should not hold the declared winner to be the legitimate governor? Having such an fraught election system delegitimizes the governments they elect, and are a real threat to democracy.
For gosh sakes, have the computers print out a paper ballot AFTER the vote is cast, and have the voter take the ballot and put it into a ballot box. At least it can be traced. Isn't the country worth it?
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