Crist Supports Paper Trails

Charlie Crist will soon unveil his plan for paper trails for voting machines.

''When you go to an ATM machine, you get some kind of a record. You go to a gas station, you get a record of that,'' Crist said. ''So if there's a need for a recount, I think it's important you have something to recount.''

That is an superbly simple and concise sentence. Paper trails aren't 100 percent full proof. It's a reasonable backup system if there is a technical failure in the software. Brad Friedman has been firmly stating that the main problem is the machines themselves.

Adding a "paper trail" to a DRE/touch-screen system is like requiring a seat belt in a Ford Pinto; what good will the seat belts do when the Pinto explodes?

What Friedman has advocated for in the past is stronger oversight. It is a essential that a democracy has fair elections. I reccommend that voting machine companies are restricted from contributing to political campaigns and PACs. This is coming from someone who hates the McCain-Feingold law.

I welcome Crist's support of paper trails. It's a good start. But there is much more work to be done. It's still easy to hack a voting machine.

Side note: Robert Wexler should be commended for convincing Crist to support paper trails.