There are those who are still claiming fraud in the 2004 election. Rubin has the explanation for how it could have been done, and why we need to change the system for future elections.  "DRE's have a transparency problem: you can't easily discover if they've been tampered with."  He says that there are "limitless ways to attack the system."

Rubin's solution is that the touchscreen machines be use for voters to make their selections, but not to tabulate the votes.  He says that the printed paper copy of the ballot then be scanned by optical scanners which are audited, and that some percentage of precincts are randomly chosen for a hand count.

Whatever the solution, the controversy is bound to discourage voters from coming to the polls or believing that their vote will really count.  We have two months to fix this problem.  Whose reponsibility is it?  And whose party benefits from the status quo?

And counting the votes only matters if voters can prove their eligibility to vote in the first place.  With the draconian and confusing new registration criteria making it almost impossible to register new voters, and the new discriminatory ID requirements for casting a vote, one wonders whether representative democracy will survive the 2006 election in Ohio.