California requires electronic voting machines to make receipts [View All]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/11/21/state1710EST0100.DTL

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In a major victory for voting rights advocates, Secretary of State Kevin Shelley announced Friday that all electronic voting machines in California must provide paper receipts by 2006.

Shelley also introduced stricter requirements for testing and auditing of the software used to record and tabulate votes in the nation's most populous state. The move may prompt changes in the type of voting equipment used throughout the country as precincts rush to modernize terminals.

California's reforms address concerns of Silicon Valley computer scientists and voting rights advocates who have been warning that paperless voting systems expose the vote to hackers, software bugs and mechanical breakdowns. The announcement comes less than three weeks after a state agency began an investigation of uncertified software allegedly used in California's Oct. 7 gubernatorial recall election.

According to Shelley's nine-page list of increased requirements for voting equipment companies, all counties that purchase new touch-screen terminals -- also known as "direct recording electronic" equipment, or DREs -- must provide a "voter verified paper audit trail," starting in July, 2005.