A couple years ago, I wrote about my consternation at the lack of a paper trail on the voting machines at my precinct. Despite my love of technology, our paperless computer-voting made me nervous. How did I know my vote was counted? How did I know it was counted correctly? Why wasn't there some kind of click or whir to tell me I'd voted?
Since then, I've read lots of articles and heard interviews with computer scientists on shows like Science Friday about voting technology (which, incidentally, is now pod-casted). The consensus among everyone -- left, right, and center, laypeople and scientists alike -- seems to be that the best system is paper ballots with ovals that are filled in with a pen or pencil and then scanned into a counting machine by the voter.
This technology tells the voter immediately if he or she filled the card out incorrectly, it tallies the votes quickly (a must in our fast-paced age), and keeps the paper cards for recount purposes. These machines can also be supplemented for the visually impaired with computers that read the ballot and fill in the ovals for you.
I'm happy to report that my precinct now has these preferred voting machines. Not only that, but New Mexico is the only state in the nation where every precinct has the same voting technology. For once, New Mexico is at the top of a list we should all want to top.