Do Diebold Machines Already Have Printers Inside?

from the more-FUD dept

A few months ago, we wrote about Diebold's admitted plan that if they were forced by government officials to add printers to their machines they would do so at a ridiculously high price in order to profit as much as possible. Now, the latest Robert Cringely column is claiming that Diebold's voting machines already have a printer inside, but it's rarely used. Cringely claims the printer is there to satisfy a law that says these machines need to print a receipt - but that Diebold has convinced everyone that the rule means each machine needs to print a single receipt of the day's results, not a receipt for each vote. The guy who alerted Cringely to the printer suggests that with a fairly cheap ($30 or so) modification, the printer could be used to produce voter verifiable receipts. Of course, there would also need to be a software change, but it might still be tough to justify hundreds, if not thousands of dollars to change each machine.

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