Says 'The integrity of Maryland's voting process is at stake'
Spanks MD's Election Administrator, Diebold Supporter Linda Lamone
By Brad Friedman on 2/20/2006, 2:54pm PT  

It's a curiously tardy call, WaPo, but welcome aboard.

From an editorial in today's Washington Post:

AFTER DAWDLING for a good two years and defending a certifiably untrustworthy voting process in Maryland, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) announced last week that he, too, has lost confidence in the state's ability to conduct fair and secure elections this fall. [ed note: See BRAD BLOG coverage of that here] A curiously tardy call, Governor, but welcome aboard: Time is short, but now an all-out effort to clean up the system before the elections can and should begin.

Lawmakers in both parties have warned repeatedly that the touch-screen machines that have been in use are seriously flawed. Voters cannot know for sure whether their choices are correctly recorded and tallied because the machines do not produce any paper trails showing each vote cast; that makes an audit impossible. Computer experts note, too, that results can be rigged without risk of detection.

Now Mr. Ehrlich has joined the paper-trail chorus, echoing concerns raised not only in Annapolis but also in dozens of states about machines manufactured by Diebold Election Systems.

There's more, but note WaPo's additional spanking of MD Elections Administrator and huge Diebold supporter, Linda Lamone:

State elections administrator Linda H. Lamone insisted Thursday that all is well, that the machines are reliable and that "you are asking for a catastrophe if you try to change" the system. After all, who needs audits or some paper record of how votes were cast? Just take it on faith that your vote was duly recorded and that the results are right.
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