Common Cause/Ohio wants to congratulate Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner for her efforts to "Get it Straight in 2008," at least in Ohio.  She promised to work for open, fair and honest elections, and having implemented one of the most extensive testing programs in the country, she has bravely taken on vendors and election reform activists alike.  Her recommendations released last week brought compliments for her efforts, but also some criticism for the substance.  

While alarms about electronic voting machines are often downplayed by elections officials who say those warnings are the paranoid fantasies of fanatic activists, here's a report by a sober and mainstream organization that includes former US Attorney General Richard Thornburgh, a moderate Republican ex-governor of Pennsylvania. The National Research Council, has issued a follow-up report on voting system, saying:

Update: The report is now available on our website.

On Thursday, Common Cause will release an exhaustive report on the problems with electronic voting machines. The report uses four major studies to lay out the case against these unreliable and insecure voting machines.

Despite the growing and convincing evidence of problems with these machines, nearly 40% of voters will cast their ballot on them in November. The report makes recommendations for what national and state election officials -- and voters -- should do before November and what voters should do if faced with voting on electronic machines.

Here's the intro to the report: