California to require e-vote paper trail

Wired News (among others: 1, 2) reports that California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley, announced today that he will require all voting machines used in that state to produce a paper trail of all ballots by 2006. (Article: E-Votes Must Leave a Paper Trail)

Beginning July 1, 2005, counties will not be able to purchase any machine that does not produce a paper trail. As of July 2006, all machines, no matter when they were purchased, must offer a voter-verifiable paper audit trail. This means machines currently in use by four counties in the state will have to be fitted with new printers to meet the requirement.

This measure addresses one of the major problems with electronic voting machines, but other problems remain. Shelley has been active in this area recently, so he may yet address the remaining problems.