"I think it's clear that paper trails are the absolute minimum requirement for valid and accountable elections at this point," he said.
California state Sen. Debra Bowen, a Democrat who is running in a primary election for the right to take on McPherson, a Republican, for the secretary of state post, agreed that the new audit requirements remain inadequate. For example, some counties aren't including absentee ballots in the manual vote requirement, which she called a "huge loophole."