[LINK] Victoria the first to cast e-vote in a state election

[Brendan Scott]

brd at iimetro.com.au wrote:
> Quoting brd at iimetro.com.au:
>> Victoria the first to cast e-vote in a state election
>> Pilot begins today
>> Sandra Rossi 13/11/2006 14:17:52
>> Computerworld
>> http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;1353237299;fp;16;fpid;1
>>
>> Electronic votes are set to be cast in the state of Victoria today,
>> marking a
>> first for Australia in any state election.
>>
>> In a bid to increase access to voting, the Victorian Electoral
>> Commission (VEC) has launched an e-voting pilot.
>>
>> People who are vision impaired will cast their votes from 6pm tonight
>> for the
>> forthcoming state election which is being held on November 25, 2006.
> 
> A blind person was interviewed on Radio National this morning and his
> experience
> of being able to vote without getting a sighted person to do it for him was
> obviously very valuable to him. The issue is in balancing the benefit to
> disabled people of e-voting against the risks to the democratic process of
> opaque technology.
> 
> I wouldn't like to see the disabled feature being used to justify the
> adoption
> of a complete technology solution. Maybe a mixture of old fashioned paper
> voting and electronic voting with a statistical comparison between the two
> methods. If the voting statistics were significantly different then the
> electronic method could be declared invalid.

Is there some reason why can't they get a braille printer and print out a completed ballot (for the voter to confirm before submitting it)?  Or have a certain number of braille ballots available to be filled in at the booth?