This is actually news from last November, but it escaped me. In a SJ Murky News editorial today, they mentioned that Kevin Shelley, the Sec'y of State, last November required all "voting companies" to build in a voter-verified paper audit no later than 2006. The reason this had relevance in today's news is that Santa Clara county's voting machine company, Sequoia, apparently is offering the upgrade free and much sooner. The editorial is requesting the county registrar to take advantage, citing a recent fiasco in Broward/Palm Beach County where in a race for State Legislature, there were 134 fewer votes cast than voters signed in...and this was the only race on the ballot. They cite the possibility that Democrats went in and walked away without voting because the only choices were Goopers, but they said we'll never know, will we? The winner "won" by 12 votes.
I want to thank whomever requested some time ago that we write Shelley and convince him about paper audits. Apparently he was convinced. And this is the kind where you get a printout of what you voted for and then turn it in, not simply a paper receipt for voting, which is useless.