E-voting: It's a bad idea, say computer scientists

The world's oldest professional society of computer scientists on Monday took aim at electronic voting machines, recommending they not be used in elections unless they provide a physical paper trail.

In a new position statement, the Association for Computing Machinery said: "Voting systems should enable each voter to inspect a physical record to verify that his or her vote has been accurately cast and to serve as an independent check on the result produced and stored by the system."

Accidental bugs or intentional malicious code in e-voting machines could theoretically alter an election's results.

ACM said that a paper trail will provide a way to double-check what's happening inside machines from companies such as Diebold Election Systems and Sequoia Voting System - a feat that would not otherwise be possible.

Such systems are expected to be used by tens of millions of voters in the 2 November US election.

Declan McCullagh writes for CNET News.com