Increasing Democracy: States Demanding a Voter Paper Trail

After a first rush towards all-digital voting machines after the 2000 voting debacle, state laws have been established in 26 states that require either a paper receipt from digital machines or a paper balloting system -- with another thirteen states considering bills requiring a paper trail for voters. The most complete all-paper system is in Oregon, whose vote-by-mail system has been touted by the Commission on Federal Election Reform (a bipartisan group co-chaired by former President Carter and James Baker) as resulting "in a more accurate count" for elections with "procedures that help reconcile problems before the election is completed, so that as many legitimately cast ballots as possible get counted, hopefully avoiding post-election litigation." For more information on efforts to expand paper verification of ballots, check out Electionline.org and VerifiedVoting.org..