Secretary of State Mike Mauro wants every precinct in Iowa to have an
optical scanner that reads paper ballots. Legislators should listen to
him, even though the plan would cost $9.7 million, according to the
Des Moines Register. A new state law says there has to be a paper
trail, leading some to call for retrofitting touchscreen machines with
windows that would let voters view a "receipt" to confirm their votes.
This "verified paper audit trail" would cost about $2 million to put
in place, but I'm with Representative Pam Jochum of Dubuque, who says
it would be a "total waste of money" to retrofit touchscreen voting
machines.

Labels: voting