After the fiasco of 2000, governments recognized the need for a more reliable system of collecting and counting votes. But out of the laboratory came a sinister new device, the direct recording electronic (DRE) voting machine. Without a paper trail or a reliable way to audit the results, and compounded by the refusal by manufacturers to allow independent software security experts to assess the reliability of the machines, doubts about the fairness of local and national elections will persist.

But the scariest thing would be people losing faith in the electoral system, causing them not to go to the polls.