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is very similar to using an automatic bank teller machine (see Touch Screen
Voting Machine figure).
It seems plausible that these machines make it more likely that a vote is counted in
the same way
that the voter intends. However, there has been significant
controversy
surrounding some types of electronic voting machines. If a machine
simply records the votes and prints out the totals after the election has been
completed, then how do you know that the machine worked correctly? Inside the
machine is a computer that executes a program, and, as you may know from your
own experience, programs can have bugs.
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Punch Card Ballot
In fact, some electronic voting machines do have bugs. There have been isolated
cases where machines reported tallies that were impossible. When a machine
reports far more or far fewer votes than voters, then it is clear that it
malfunctioned. Unfortunately, it is then impossible to find out the actual votes.
Over time, one would expect these bugs to be fixed in the software. More
insidiously, if the results are plausible, nobody may ever investigate.
Many computer scientists have spoken out on this issue and confirmed that it is
impossible, with today's technology, to tell that software is error free and has not
been tampered with. Many of them recommend that electronic voting machines
should be complemented by a voter verifiable audit trail. (A good source of
