Why Are Americans Allowing Our Votes to be "Counted" By Machines?

President Bush has an eerie confidence about the upcoming elections. That makes me nervous. Does he know something we don’t know? It’s amazing to me (J) that Americans are allowing our votes to be counted by computers.

“With midterm elections less than two weeks away, some critics are raising doubts about the reliability of electronic voting machines, but the machines’ manufacturers say they are sound.

“The equipment has been tested by independent agencies and federal agencies,” said Mark Radke, the director of marketing for Diebold, the company that makes the machines.
Radke also told “Good Morning America” that the units that didn’t have paper receipts had the same encrypted software as machines that printed out receipts.

“Approximately 40 percent of Americans will use these machines to vote in November.
Casting a ballot with the touch of a screen is a new system that voters in at least 33 states will use on Election Day, but some critics are skeptical about the machines’ reliability. “We don’t know what happens inside these machines. We as citizens are not allowed to know,” said Edward Felten, a professor of computer science and public affairs at Princeton University.