GAO: Electronic Voting Offers Opportunities and Presents Challenges (pdf):
Looking toward to the upcoming 2004 national election and beyond, the challenges confronting local jurisdictions in using electronic voting systems are not unlike those facing any technology user. These challenges include (1) performing those security, testing, and maintenance activities needed to minimize risk and adequately ensure that the system operates as intended; (2) managing the system, the people who interact with the system, and the processes that govern this interaction as interrelated and interdependent parts; (3) having reliable measures and objective data to know whether the system is meeting the needs of the jurisdiction’s user community (both the voters and the persons who administer the elections); and (4) making choices about future system changes in light of whether a given system will provide benefits over its useful life commensurate with life-cycle costs, and ensuring that these costs are affordable.
