Cost of a touchscreen e-voting machine: About $3,000 each
Cost of an entry-level iPad: $499 each
The rest of this modest proposal below the fold:
Cost of a wireless laser printer: under $200 each
Cost of a locking frame with power supply (to prevent theft and block access to iPad buttons) to turn the iPad into a kiosk: $349 (for a very artistic version -- a more utilitarian version could probably be had for much less).
Cost of developing an open-source app to run a voting ballot on an iPad: a one-time fee of a few thousand dollars. Can be easily distributed everywhere through Apple's iTunes store as a free app.
Cost of developing an open-source web application, so anyone (from a Secretary of State to a local district) can enter the races and candidates, and generate an XML voting ballot: a one-time fee of a few thousand dollars. Can be easily distributed as an open source CGI module.
- The people running the election would go to the web application, enter all the races, candidates, etc.
- The web application generates the ballot.
- The ballot is loaded onto each iPad over the web by having the voting app visit a URL over wi-fi.
- The iPad is locked into the kiosk frame with the voting app running. The buttons are blocked so voters cannot switch out to other apps.
- The voter makes their selections on the iPad's touchscreen.
- The voter finishes voting and the app prints their ballot on the laser printer.
- The voter inspects their paper ballot for accuracy.
- The voter puts their paper ballot in the box. ("The box" could even be an optical scan reader; the printed form would then be an optical scan-compatible form.)
And there you have it: an open source system, with a voter-verified paper trail, at a third of the cost of the dedicated machines.