This just in from the Mohave County news desk:

MOHAVE COUNTY NEWS RELEASE Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012

Photo courtesy Mohave County

Touch-screen testing: Mohave County Elections Director Allen Tempert and Deputy Director Betty Vernon stand behind their work, literally, Wednesday, Jan. 25, at the County Administration Building in Kingman. Handicap-accessible, touch-screen (TSX) voting equipment goes through a series of accuracy tests prior to any election. During the Presidential Preference Election (PPE) in February, there will be one TSX machine at every voting poll site; 36 throughout the county. During the PPE, registered Republicans and Green Party members can vote to choose their party’s Presidential candidate. January 30 is the last day to register to vote in the PPE which will be held on February 28.

For more information, go to the Elections Department website (www.co.mohave.az.us and select Department, Elections, or call (928) 753-0733, option 2. Important dates for all 2012 elections, voting poll sites and other information can be found on the Elections Department website.

If you don’t know HOW these voting machines are used to alter the results, please check out Black Box Voting.

I’m not even opposed to electronic voting in principle as long as everybody gets a paper receipt.  Think of a cash register at the store.  It’s computerized, but you have absolute PROOF on your receipt of what you purchased, what you paid and when you bought it.

One could easily add random identifying numbers to each voting receipt to protect the voter’s privacy and then have the results of the election published on the web — each vote listed with the identifying number.   Voters could check online to make sure that their vote was actually counted and that it was NOT changed.  If you find that your vote was altered or that it disappeared, you got your receipt to prove it.

What are Elections Director Allen Tempert and Deputy Director Betty Vernon’s qualifications to test these machines?

How do THEY know that these machines can NOT be accessed wireless to have the election results changed?