Jim Flowers has responded to my post about the eVoting panel with some good, from the trenches, perspectives. Jim has been involved in Georgia state government in a number of posts for some time. He says "For Georgia going back (a question proposed for the panel) is simply not an option."

s the new system perfect? No. Will printing ballots solve the problem - perceived or otherwise? No. Once your copy leaves the station - the integrity is broken. And, auditing a paper trail takes tremendous resources - a cost not yet counted in the writings I have seen. Audit processes similar to the financial sector and security sector can be implemented to check the integrity of the machines - and that is good enough. There are far more important issues threatening our democracy (like PATRIOT, lack of voter participation, etc) which make this issue just one of many to weigh in our policy analyses.

From Jim Flowers' Radio Weblog
Referenced Tue Feb 03 2004 08:06:04 GMT-0700

Jim's fundamental point, I think, is that getting real people with real problems (i.e. elections office staff) in the debate will add significantly to level of discussion and move us closer to real solutions.