Electorate's Tossup Issues Include Electronic Voting; Voters Still Rap Touch Screens; Government Accountability Office among the agencies investigating the complaints.(INTERNET & TECHNOLOGY)

Byline: BRIAN DEAGON

A month after the 2004 elections, the unsettling fact remains that not everyone is settled on the results.

The results themselves are set. But just last week, the Government Accountability Office, responding to a flood of complaints from voters and some members of Congress, said it would look into the Nov. 2 vote process. To a large degree, it means looking into the electronic touch-screen voting machines that are fast becoming an election staple. Touch screens recorded 29% of votes cast Nov. 2, up from just 10% in 2002, says Election Data Services.

The findings by the GAO, the investigative arm for Congress, could lead to changes in electronic voting. So could other findings. A dozen or more U.S. counties are conducting vote recounts, in large part because of voter fear that touch-screen systems didn't work properly or were hacked.

New Hampshire, for example, will recount votes cast on touch-screen and optical-scan ballots in 11 towns or cities.

This comes two years after Congress, reacting to the Florida vote fiasco in 2000, authorized spending up to $3.8 billion for new voting technology and training. States have until 2006 to spend that windfall. Many are mulling touch-screen voting systems.

For voting system vendors, this remains a small market. It accounted for just 5% of sales last year for Diebold, or a little more than $100 million. It and privately held Election Systems & Software are the market leaders in touch-screen voting system sales.