From today's
Salt Lake Ttribune:
Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert announced Tuesday that the state has awarded a contract worth about $27 million to Ohio-based Diebold Election Systems, which also runs statewide voting equipment for Georgia, Maryland, Alaska and Arizona.
....
Tuesday's announcement ends a two-year hunt to replace the antiquated punch-ballot system, and brings Utah in compliance with the Help America Vote Act of 2002, a federal mandate that followed
the voting controversy in Florida during the 2000 presidential race.
....
The new system should produce election results much faster. Each electronic booth keeps a running count, negating the need for counting machines. The voting booths produce a computer printout with a bar code to use in cases of a recount or when questions arise over the accuracy of the electronic count. Each voter can examine the accuracy of their votes on the printout, which is displayed under a piece of glass. This paper audit is in response to a law the Legislature passed last session.
more after the break...
The article does go on to run down the complaints people have about this voting system. The Utah law that the article cites can be found
here, and was amended in a 2005 legislative session.
20A-5-302 Automated voting system
(2)(a) Each automated voting system shall:
(xiii) for voting equipment certified after January 1, 2005, produce a permanent paper record that:
- (A) shall be available as an official record for any recount or election contest conducted with respect to an election where the voting equipment is used;
- (B)(I) shall be available for the voter's inspection prior to the voter leaving the polling place; and
- (B)(II) shall permit the voter to inspect the record of the voter's selections independently only if reasonably practicable commercial methods permitting independent inspection are available at the time of certification of the voting equipment by the lieutenant governor;
- (C) shall include, at a minimum, human readable printing that shows a record of the voter's selections;
- (D) may also include machine readable printing which may be the same as the human readable printing; and
- (E) allows voting poll watchers and counting poll watchers to observe the election process to ensure its integrity;