Paper ballots and only paper ballots

I know I may sound like a techno-Luddite on this matter. I don't care. We need to be able to verify that our elections are sound and every legitimate vote counted. You cannot do that with electronic voting machines. That they are hackable has been demonstrated repeatedly. They can also be programmed to commit election fraud (not saying they have been, but they can be).

Now, check out this bit of news:

Following three months of investigation, California's secretary of state has released a report examining why a voting system made by Premier Election Solutions (formerly known as Diebold) lost about 200 ballots in Humboldt County during the November presidential election.

But the most startling information in the state's 13-page report (.pdf) is not about why the system lost votes, which Threat Level previously covered in detail, but that some versions of Diebold's vote tabulation system, known as the Global Election Management System (GEMS), include a button that allows someone to delete audit logs from the system.

Thanks to Raw Story (by way of Dependable Renegade)

--the BB