Computerized Voting

The following comments were made by former House Speaker, Newt Gingrich, Sunday, December 24, 2000 on NBC's Meet the Press with Tim Russert.

Newt Gingrich on Computerized Voting

I want to comment on one other part of the election, if I could.

And that is: I've been asking audiences how many people pump gas and don't even – uh – get a receipt anymore. Because they're so certain that the data is accurate. And there are places – you did that piece, I think, on Riverside, California – where you now vote on the equivalent of an ATM machine, and it is stunningly more accurate.

I think the federal government is going to have to, next year, help the states – really go to a modern system of voting that matches that kind of accuracy, and not allow a state that doesn't have the money, or a county that doesn't have the money, or – as you pointed out – a neighborhood where people are getting the last machine from 28 years ago.

We as a country, by 2004, should have a modern, totally sophisticated voting system, that has a hundred percent accuracy – uh – and that is able to make the returns within seconds after the votes are in.