But even those who followed the rules found themselves without a vote. As a last-ditch effort, the commander of a U.S. Navy ship stationed overseas in November pleaded to Secretary of State Katherine Harris for help in finding his AWOL ballot. Voting systems must do the same four things, whether mechanical or computer, said Shamos, the computer system specialist at Carnegie Mellon. The punch card system Shamos examined in 1980 failed on all four counts. Flashing lights on the machines allow voters to see whom they are voting for.
Program codes prevent overvoting.
A paper printout keeps a tally for potential recounts and court challenges. But this year in Trenton, N.J., one direct entry voting computer improbably showed no votes for two local candidates' running mates. Mercuri argues that she believes the electronic voting machines cannot be audited, paper printouts notwithstanding. It's sort of scary, because a lot of places want to throw out these punch cards and switch to something really scary. In fact, that is not the case because there really is no regulation on these types of machines.