The priority should be that of creating a system that is fully auditable, and where any alterations of electronic data are easy to detect via strong audit trails.

Voting should be easy to do, while simultaneously providing a clear audit trail. One that is extremely difficult to compromise. Historically, paper audit trails have been the most secure way to record data. I believe they still are. A touchscreen voting machine should contain a printer to record the voters choices on a 2 part paper roll, with one copy dispensed to allow the voter to instantly verify that the machine recorded their vote properly, and the other copy retained internally, on a receiving roll. The printer should also keep an electronic record separate from the record in the touchscreen system, for real time instant audits. But the paper roll remains as the user verified, auditable backup. Spot audits could be performed, with any difference between the separate electronic counts and/or the paper roll, throwing up a red flag, and alerting officials that something has gone wrong. Existing touch screen voting systems would just need to have a receipt printing module attached, and new machines could be made with the printer built in.

I would contend that the user verification is what was lacking in previous systems. Even punch card systems or hand marked balloting could have provided a user verification booth, where voters could insert their ballot, and see on a display how their vote would be tallied. This would have prevented or ameliorated almost every problem that occurred in the 2000 election.

A combination of touchscreen voting with dual electronic tallies, and an accompanying paper record gives you voter verification of their own vote via receipt, and the physical impossibility of an improperly or fraudulently recorded vote, because of the 2 part roll duplication. If a voter perceives an error, it could be easily noted directly on the roll, via an election worker override, and the voter’s erroneous receipt could be deposited inside the voting machine with the roll storage, to be matched for verification in the event of a paper audit.

I think such a system would guard against voter errors or confusion, and could be easily implemented, easily audited, with a fully verifiable recount available via the paper record.