Secretary of state Mary Kiffmeyer, whose office oversees elections, says 80% of Minnesota’s citizens have already used optical scan voting machines.
Kiffmeyer is confident of the accuracy of the electronic system, citing the 2004 election where the error rate of electronically counted ballots was nearly zero. States that manually counted ballots had an error rate of 1.5%, she said.
Critics of e-voting have argued that the machines are vulnerable to faulty programming and mechanical failure.
Minnesota has implemented system safeguards including a mandatory hand recount. The state will also hold onto original paper ballots.
Congress passed the Help America Vote Act in 2000 which requires all states to switch to e-voting machines. Over $1 billion has been set aside for the conversion, including $31 million for Minnesota.
A group of Pennsylvania voters have recently filed a lawsuit to boycott the use of electronic voting machines.
