1. VVPAT Building Confidence in U.S. Elections

2. WHAT IS VVPAT ? Voter-verifiable paper audit trail Requires the voting system to print a paper ballot containing the voter’s selection after vote is cast This allows voters to examine the ballot for correctness through a glass/screen If the paper does not match the intended choices on the computer, a poll worker can be shown the problem, the ballot can be voided, and another opportunity to vote provided The voting record is independent of the software controlling the computer

3. WHY IS VVPAT IMPORTANT ? Important in close elections where a recount or audit (an official inspection of an individual's or organization's accounts) is called for If this happens, precincts can go back to the paper trail so that a proper recount is conducted (instead of an electronic recount) Computerized voting equipment is inherently subject to programming error, equipment malfunction, and malicious tampering

4. WHY IS VVPAT IMPORTANT CONTINUED Crucial that there is a permanent record of each vote that is checked for accuracy by the voter before the vote is officially submitted Difficult or impossible to alter after it has been checked Gives voters confidence that their vote is being counted as intended

5. SOFTWARE ERRORS IN ELECTIONS 2000 Bush v. Gore 2012-Guilford County, NC-voters complained that their electronic ballot machine cast the wrong vote. All the complaints were made by people who voted at the Bur-Mil Park polling location. Votes were cast for Mitt Romney but the machine defaulted to Obama. Cateret County, North Carolina, November 2004: software problems caused 4,438 electronic ballots to be lost and never recovered. The vendor acknowledged responsibility for the loss. Pottawattamie County, Iowa, in the June 2006 primary election for County Recorder, the original optical scan count showed challenger Oscar Duran defeating the incumbent, John Sciortino. A hand count showed that Sciortino actually had won handily; the scanners had been misprogrammed.

6. SOFTWARE ERRORS IN ELECTIONS In Napa County, California, after the March 2004 primary, the 1% manual tally discovered that the optical scanners had been miscalibrated and were failing to detect the dye-based ink commonly used in gel pens. The ensuing recount recovered almost 6700 votes (but no outcomes changed). Broward County, Florida, January 2004: 134 electronic ballots were blank in a one-race election held on DRE voting machines in which the margin of victory was 12 votes. Florida law required a manual recount of the ballots, but that recount was impossible because there were no physical ballots to recount.

7. IN THE CASE OF A RECOUNT While DREs can print a paper record of the votes cast, it is just a printout of the electronic records. If the electronic record is inaccurate, then the printed report will also be inaccurate. Additionally, DREs do not provide voters any method for inspecting how their vote is stored inside the DRE’s electronic memory. Thus, the electronic ballot records stored in those memory circuits are completely invisible to and unverified by the voter; they are also alterable Without voter-verified paper records that accurately reflect the voters’ choices, it is impossible to perform a recount that voters and authorities are confident is correct

8. CONCLUSION While technology is a part of our everyday lives and has proven to be advantageous in many ways, it can fail us (and has proven to fail us in many elections) As Rush Holt, U.S. Representative (D-NJ), who introduced The Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act H.R. 550 which would mandate a voter verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) said, “Without an independent, voter-verified paper trail, it is impossible to discover almost any but the most egregious anomalies, accidental or intentional. A voter-verified paper audit trail would enable a complete audit of close or questionable elections, and more fundamentally, would give voters confidence that their votes are actually being recorded and counted as they intended." American citizens deserve to have this confidence in the election process There should be no uneasiness in the people about whether the right person was chosen for office, especially in the case of the presidential election (the leader of our nation)

9. SOURCES http://electionaudits.org/whyaudit https://www.verifiedvoting.org