So why are you taking on Sen. Allen, a first-term incumbent? Allen has been part of the problem. He has the third-highest support scores for President Bush's policies among all U.S. senators. Clearly he's interested in running for president. I will be a full-time senator for Virginia when I'm elected.

As the president of ITAA, which includes electronic voting systems vendors among its members, you said in the past that you opposed verifiable paper trails for such systems. For many people in the country, this is a very important issue because of accuracy issues in several recent elections. What is your stand on this issue as a candidate? I did oppose verifiable paper trails until about a year and a half ago. I was hearing from local registrars, including in Virginia, that they didn't want the additional burden for administration and maintenance that the paper trails would produce with printers and other equipment. But voters want it. It has more voter confidence. My argument at the time was that if [a hacker] is smart enough to take over a [voting] machine and register someone's vote internally for the wrong candidate, that they're also smart enough to make it look like the paper trail properly says who you voted for. People could get a false sense of security.

Why give up an established, full-time job to run for a major office against an incumbent senator? I'm just so frustrated with the direction of our country and ... I think I can make a difference.