Electronic voting machines are threatening democracy, says Douglas Kellner, commissioner of New York City's board of elections. This stark assessment is garnering increasing support, even as many US states and democracies around the world adopt electronic voting for their elections. A mounting tally of problems surrounds the e-voting systems now being introduced in many parts of the US. The latest blow is a report highlighting security flaws in the 16,000 machines that the state of Maryland will be using for its presidential primary elections on 2 March. As the machines were being deployed, experts spoke to New Scientist of concerns that whatever the problems of paper-based voting, electronic voting has fundamental flaws. They include a lack of transparency in counting votes, and problems with carrying out a proper recount or guaranteeing no voting fraud has occurred.
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