“Voting Technology: Beyond HAVA, Beyond Paper”

Dan Tokaji has written this very important commentary for the Moritz election law site. It begins: “2006 is turning out to be a big year on the voting technology front. That’s primarily because of some important deadlines in the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (“HAVA”), requiring disability-accessible voting equipment and the replacement of punch-card and lever machines. A number of states failed to prepare adequately for these deadlines, forcing a rush to get new technology in place in time for this year’s elections. In other states, the fierce debate over the security of electronic machines – and, more specifically, the push to require contemporaneous paper records of electronically-cast votes – has impeded conversion to new technology. The end result is that, contrary to what Congress intended in 2002, the transformation of the United States’ voting equipment is nowhere near complete as of early 2006. The big question is how to move forward, given this messy state of affairs.”

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