Does the bill ban direct recording electronic (DREs) voting machines?
There are two main types of electronic voting systems in use in the United States. One is the “Optical Scan” machine, which allows a voter to fill out her ballot by penciling in bubbles on a piece of paper, much as she might fill out a lottery ticket. The second is the “touch screen” or DRE voting system. This system allows the voter to cast her vote by directly touching a computer screen, just as she might withdraw money from an ATM or buy a movie ticket at a computerized kiosk. [Click here for a Wikipedia description of several voting systems.] The DRE system has come under attack from many voting integrity activists, particularly after 18,000 votes were lost on one such machine (which did not have a voter verified paper trail) in Sarasota County, Florida, in a Congressional race in 2006. HR 811 does not ban DREs; it only bans the paperless version (i.e., one without a voter verified paper trail). Such paperless machines are currently in use in 22 states. HR 811 does, however, have s
