Apparently, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission—or, at least, half of its members—feel that ensuring the integrity of elections by having some way to verify the results isn’t worth the bother. So, if you happen to live in a state (perhaps of denial or chaos) that uses paperless voting machines, your vote will count…probably. The Associated Press reports:

Panel rejects extra checks on electronic voting

GAITHERSBURG, Md. – A federal advisory panel on Monday rejected a recommendation that states use only voting machines whose results could be independently verified.

The panel drafting voting guidelines for the U.S. Election Assistance Commission voted 6-6 not to adopt a proposal that would have required electronic machines used by millions of voters to produce a paper record or other independent means of checking election results. Eight votes were needed to pass it.

The failed resolution, proposed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology computer scientist and panel member Ronald Rivest, closely mirrored a report released last week that warned that paperless electronic voting machines are vulnerable to errors and fraud and cannot be made secure.

Some panel members who voted against the proposal said they support paper records but don’t think the risk of widespread voting machine meltdowns are great enough to rush the requirement into place and overwhelm state election boards. [full text]

Well, we certainly wouldn’t want to inconvenience state election boards with having to do, oh I don’t know, their jobs! Wouldn’t the state election boards want to ensure that there are no errors and fraud? Moreover, how could anyone, including the U.S. Election Assistance Committee, not want such?

This is why we need legislation like the Ballot Integrity Act.