Bradenton Herald | 07/03/2004 | Dems ask U.N. to monitor election

"Still smarting from the 2000 Florida recount, a group of congressional Democrats led by Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas has asked the United Nations to monitor this year's presidential election.
'We are deeply concerned that the right of U.S. citizens to vote in free and fair elections is again in jeopardy,' the lawmakers wrote to Secretary General Kofi Annan."

This is, unfortunately, not a joke. Just look at the recent "Vote America" scandal.

"Under the Help America Vote Act, millions of dollars are being spent to replace old punch card and mechanical voting systems. State and local governments are buying systems where the ballot appears on a computer screen. Voters touch the screen to make their choices. These systems can provide results quickly.

But technical problems have been reported. There are also questions about computer security. The worst fear is that someone dishonest might be able to steal an election.

Avi Rubin is a professor of computer science at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland. He and a team of researchers say electronic voting systems are not acceptable for the presidential election this November. They argue that there are still too many problems.