I’m curious about the “misalignment” problem mentioned in the article. Do most computerized voting machines record your vote as soon as you touch the square? The ones I’ve used before just darken the square that you touch (it’s a monochrome screen). You then touch the “Next Page” button and vote for the next item. At any time you can go back to check your selections and change them. At the end you hit he “Cast Vote” button, and everything is final. The whole thing is pretty much idiot-proof. It sounds like the machines mentioned in the article don’t let you go back to change your vote before casting it. Definitely a bad thing.
The question should not be “Are electronic voting machines secure” which the answer is of course there not. The question should be “Are electronic voiting machines MORE secure than paper based” in which case the answer is a lot more complicated.
Its pretty much impossible to create a truely secure system. All we can hope for is better security than the current “best practice”.
One manufacturer is Diebold, Incorporated. It’s a publicly held company based in North Canton, Ohio and makes most of its money selling ATM machines.
The following link takes you to their election systems division.
http://www.diebold.com/dieboldes/