Even if electronic voting systems were perfect, we shouldn't use a mechanism that conceals the recording and counting of ballots -- because it invites fraud. Given that democracy relies on people's belief that elections are honest, we shouldn't turn over the heart of our elections to an unobservable, unverifiable mechanism.

Electronic voting systems without voter-verified paper ballots have never been proven to work (they can't be, because proof would require an independent audit of results, which requires voter-verified paper ballots). Without an independent audit of their results, no one can know if errors have occurred in recording or counting the votes. All we can see is whether or not the screen display appears correct -- visible malfunctions -- not what is going on inside, where most errors normally occur.

Computer errors are not just possible, they are guaranteed. In the professional world of computer technology, systems comparable to voting systems still produce errors after years of daily use, auditing, and corrections. In contrast, the hanging chads of Florida, 2000, were a blessing because anyone with normal vision could see the voter's intent by holding the ballot up to the light.