Does Common Cause believe that machines are necessary?
We realize that there are some places in the U.S. where voters cast their votes on paper ballots with pens or pencils, and poll workers hand-count the ballots. However, this process is not inherently less subject to fraud or inaccuracy than any other, nor is it accessible to disabled voters. Since the Help America Vote Act mandates that every polling place must have at least one handicapped-accessible machine in place by January of 2006, we don’t endorse doing away with machines altogether.
