By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Variety News Staff

ELECTRONIC voting machines would not be a component of next year’s elections if Gov. Felix P. Camacho signs into law a bill that suspends Guam’s adoption of automated voting system.
Bill 49 was one of the several bills passed by the Legislature last week and are awaiting the governor’s action.
Bill 49 requires the reversion to paper ballot until the problematic areas of electronic voting are sorted out and “until such time that the Guam Elections Commission ensures that each voting machine provides an auditable paper trail.”
The bill, introduced by Sens. Rory Respicio, D-Agana Heights, Judith Guthertz, D-Mangilao, and Tina Muna Barnes, D-Mangilao, was prompted by glitches and technical errors that marred last year’s elections and led to a lawsuit against GEC.
Guam is not the first U.S. jurisdiction to seek restrictions on electronic voting machines.
Recently, California Secretary of State Debra Bowen imposed a ban on most touch-screen voting machines in California, following tests that showed the machines could be breached by hackers.