In the United States, touch-screen voting machines are more and more becoming the norm.  While this new technology enables election officials to quickly tally the vote and determine the winners on Election Day, VOA's Jeffrey Young reports that it has also brought new problems that some observers say could erode public confidence in the election process.

Electronic voting using portable, computer-based ballots

The credibility of a democratically-elected government begins with balloting the public believes to be fair and accurately counted.  And as the technology of voting advances, election officials have to take new steps to ensure accuracy, and with it, credibility.

In Montgomery County, in the mid-Atlantic state of Maryland, as is true across the United States, election workers get special training in setting up and operating electronic voting machines.  One instructor cites the steps taken to ensure the integrity of what the machines record. "These machines are prepared under 24-hour [security] cameras, and people from both [the Democratic and Republican] parties when they are prepped and set up.  Once we open them up [for voting], we are with them [the voting machines] every second until we re-lock them."

Gary Kalman

Benjamin Ginsberg

The paper backup Professor Ginsberg refers to would be a printed receipt of someone's votes that would be saved by election officials and used if there is an election recount.  Unfortunately, many of the electronic voting machines now in use do not create receipts.  So, states and [smaller subdivisions called] counties would have to purchase many millions of dollars worth of new equipment to have this capability.

But ultimately, what is at stake is the credibility of the election system in a democratic society.