Here in NH the Secretary of State has knowingly and willingly approved computerized voting against NH's own State Constitution, which mandates open vote counting. The NH Secretary of State compounds the constitutional violation by conducting nonpublic vote tabulation. The Ballot Law Commission approved the technology even after the vendor testified that it has defects that can lead to election tampering that can persist from one election to the next!!! Because of these irresponsible acts, New Hampshire's "first in the nation" is just a lawsuit waiting to happen....And when it happens, you bet I'll take a front row seat.

SOURCE: macon.com

ATLANTA -- A group of frustrated Georgia residents is challenging the state's touch-screen voting system, telling the state's top court Monday that there's no way to ensure each ballot cast is recorded and tabulated properly.

The lawsuit targets the electronic voting system adopted in 2002 in the aftermath of the Florida voting debacle that made Georgia the first in the nation to have uniform touch-screen voting statewide.

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Critics argue there's no guarantee that electronic ballots are tallied correctly because there's no way to independently audit the votes collected by the machines. Attorney Walker Chandler said they were little more than "glorified adding machines."

"I'm not sure it would pass muster in a second- or third-world country," he said. "Why would it pass muster here?"

Chandler represents Garland Favorito and seven others who filed a lawsuit in 2006 against the governor, the secretary of state and election officials that claimed the system doesn't protect against fraudulent election results.

The challenge was rebuffed by a trial judge, who dismissed the challenge without granting the critics a trial. But Chandler quickly appealed to Georgia's top court, which did not immediately issue a decision on the case.

Chandler asked the court to strike down the voting system because the state constitution requires that elections be conducted by ballots - and electronic voting machines technically don't have such a "ballot."

State attorneys countered that the machines met federal and state requirements and that they create their own paper trail that can be audited. And attorney Stefan Ritter said skeptical residents can still vote on paper with a mail-in absentee ballot.

Above all, he added the system is less vulnerable than the patchwork of paper balloting systems that previously existed in the state.

"All of these systems were less reliable than touch-screen voting systems," he said. "They were susceptible to fraud, misrepresentation, people changing ballots."

Chandler, however, argued it was only a matter of time until someone is robbed of their right to vote by a computer glitch or crooks looking to steal an election.

"We're all being asked to trust the government," he said. "History teaches us otherwise."