To the Point

Electronic Voting Machines

Florida has traded its butterfly ballots and punch cards with hanging chads for computers, but John Kerry already has plans for a legal challenge to the results, and he-s not the only one who thinks touch-screen, electronic voting may be even more unreliable than paper ballots. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported that, in this year-s primaries, ATM-style electronic voting machines made eight times more mistakes than cheaper systems using paper ballots with optical scanners. The League of Women Voters is passionately divided over the issue. With 25 percent of American voters using computers in this year-s presidential election, will all their votes be counted? Warren Olney talks to experts on both sides about mechanical failures, hackers and -paper trails.- Making News: Philippine Government Appeals for Truck Driver-s Release There-s no word on Angelo dela Cruz, the Filipino hostage being held in Iraq. While the Foreign Secretary has promised that Philippine troops will be -swiftly- removed, the Bush administration is against bowing to pressure from kidnappers. Paul Wilkinson, chair of the Center for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, offers an alternative to agreeing to terrorist demands. Reporters Notebook: US Officials Discuss Postponing Election in Event of a Terrorist Attack The US Election Assistance Commission has notified leaders of Congress that if terrorists tried to disrupt this year-s presidential election, there would be no authority to cancel or reschedule the voting. Newsweek magazine reported that the Justice Department had been asked to review what steps would be needed. California Republican Christopher Cox, chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, said that would be -prudent,- but he's since changed his mind.