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Ohio Senate Votes to Require Audit Trail
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The majority of the Ohio Senate voted yesterday for a bill that will allow voters to receive a paper audit trail for their votes by 2006. The bill will also permit 31 counties to replace punch-card ballots this year with electronic voting machines. "Today is a victory for Ohio voters," said Sen. Teresa Fedor, D-Toledo, in a release she issued jointly with Sen. Tom Roberts, D-Dayton. "The voter-verified paper audit trail provides the necessary security and the ability to have a manual recount on the electronic voting machines." The voter-verified paper audit trail, which will allow voters using an electronic voting machine the ability to view a printout of their vote. The VVPAT is a security measure designed to give voters confidence in electronic voting. Without a VVPAT, there would be no way to verify the authenticity of votes if a machine malfunctions during an election, according to the state senators' release. "Without the voter-verified paper audit trail, voter confidence in our election results on these machines would suffer," Fedor said. Both Sens. Fedor and Roberts were members of the Ohio Joint Committee on Ballot Security, which heard testimony from citizens on the importance of voting accuracy. "We heard from many people in the committee that VVPATs were essential for a safe, fair voting process," Roberts said. "We took their comments to heart and continued to push for this in spite of criticism from the Secretary of State and some of the media. We knew this was the right thing for the voting process. Ohio's voters are the real winners here today." Across the country, many other states have experienced problems with electronic voting machines such as screens going blank, machines shutting down, power failure and machines losing votes. The VVPAT alleviates most of these problems by allowing a voter to check their choices at the ballot box in real time and allows the voter to change or discard their vote without having to rely on a computer screen or an invisible chip. The state will pay for the cost of retrofitting touch screen devices with printers, which will allow voters to see that their vote has been recorded. "