During the last presidential election, the embarrassing fiasco in Florida brought to light flaws in voting machines across the nation, including serious problems with punch-card ballots. In response, Congress approved billions to update voting machines, and many states have purchased touch-screen computerized voting machines.

To insure that electronic voting machines work accurately, Congress should require them to print out a receipt for voters and a copy the system will keep. These printouts could be reviewed if questions about election tampering came up.

* Computerized voting machines are vulnerable to the problems and tampering that plague all computers: crashes, hackers, power-outages, human error, etc.

* For our democracy to work, the mechanics of our voting system must be totally reliable. Citizens must have confidence that elections are conducted fairly and honestly.

* Companies that make the machines may have political agendas. The CEO of Diebold Election Systems Inc., Walden W. O’Dell, recently wrote in a fund-raising letter for the Republicans, “I am committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year.” Safeguards against such agendas are important in protecting all citizens’ right to cast an honestly counted vote.

All voting mechanisms should have a verifiable audit trail. Fellow citizens, please contact your elected officials and express your support for a private, verifiable voting system

Donna Greathouse Neel

North Bend