In response to a pro-Diebold editorial, I managed to get my
letter to the editor published in the Seattle times.
It only takes one bad election worker with a little technical knowledge five minutes to alter the entire vote count from one machine. With paper ballots, a corrupt election worker can only throw away or alter individual votes, so causing hundred- or thousand-vote swings is difficult.
Without saved paper print-out confirmations of individual votes, a recount is not possible. In order to have confidence in the system, we'll need to have independent election observers watching the electronic transitions from precincts up to the state level.
Perhaps the U.N. can practice here in November before the January Iraq elections.
Short and a little choppy I know; I've found that editors tend to like letters with a lot of content packed into few words.