venezuela's electronic voting

["michael a. lebowitz" <mlebowit@xxxxxx>]

       The Electoral Council, the Carter Commission and the OAS have completed
their check of the accuracy of results from the electronic voting machines
by sampling the paper ballots created by the machines. (The ballots
indicate the table, the machine, etc) They found that the paper ballots
confirmed the results. The opposition, not surprisingly, continues to cry
fraud and to charge Carter and Gaviria with complicity. (The latter looked
extremely uncomfortable at today's press conference--- presumably because
these are his buddies saying this.) Aside from anything else, this
demonstrates the importance of having a paper trail to accompany electronic
voting machines. Since in the US, recounts will involve simply running the
potentially tampered machines a second time, if
I were in the US I'd be asking to borrow Venezuela's machines for the
November election. There may be enough for Florida. 8^)
       m
Michael A. Lebowitz
Professor Emeritus
Economics Department
Simon Fraser University
Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6

Currently based in Venezuela. Can be reached at
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Departamento 601
Parque Central, Zona Postal 1010, Oficina 1
Caracas, Venezuela
(58-212) 573-4111
fax: (58-212) 573-7724