In a recent New York Times article two politicasters called for a "paper audit" of electronic voting. I think this is misguided. Paper voting has never been a flawless process. The fact that it has come to be trusted has less to do with its security strength than the human ability to accept risk. But demanding a paper trail for electronic voting is equivalent to forcing car drivers to keep a horse and a buggy whip as a backup.

I think the following summary from a keynote address given by a computer scientist outlines the absurdity of the "pieces of paper" argument.

Touch-screen voting machines store records of cast votes in internal memory, where the voter cannot check them. Because of our system of secret ballots, once the voter leaves the polls there is no way anyone can determine whether the vote captured was what the voter intended. Why should voters trust these machines?

Last December, I drafted a “Resolution on Electronic Voting” stating that every voting system should have a “voter verifiable audit trail,” which is a permanent record of the vote that can be checked for accuracy by the voter, and which is saved for a recount if it is required.

Why should voters trust the current paper system? After all there is no way to verify that any individual’s ballot was captured and tallied. How can the voter check his vote today? He can’t. We do not get a permanent record of our vote today. Why is it good idea for a new system and not for the current one?

Paper documents are inadequate for recounts. Has everybody forgotten the miserable job done during the recounts of the 2000 elections? I remember poll workers holding paper ballots up to examine the intent of the voter. We were introduced to the wonderful terms "dimpled chad" and "pregnant chad". Friends, the paper system for recounts is broken.

Every change made to an electronic system can be automatically documented and audited. I wonder if the fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) surrounding electronic voting is because the old paper system is well understood and can be subverted by people who cannot win elections any other way. How else do Democrats get elected?

A well-designed electronic voting system can be safer and more secure than today’s current system of paper ballots. We will not achieve a better voting system if we do not allow it to prove its strength without the fetters of the old paper system.