Update on Oklahoma's Compliance with HAVA
Oklahoma is not, repeat *NOT*, going to change from its current voting system using the optical scan method. Though they are using money from the Help America Vote Act to upgrade the system.
As it turns out, the computerization-of-voting that the election board will be implementing in time for the next presidential election are changes regarding the state's compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The full email exchange is located here

I am wondering what, if anything, the election board has decided to do
concerning the method of casting ballots in Oklahoma. Following the
link from the homepage to "Help America Vote Act of 2002 (H.R. 3295)
The Oklahoma Response," I found that clicking the PDF entitled
"Request for Proposal: Telecommunications-based Statewide Voting
System — January 23, 2006" only yields the following response: "Error
404
HTTP Web Server: Lotus Notes Exception - Entry not found in index"
I am requesting that you update the site to include all the most
recent updates concerning implementation of HAVA.
Please do not change from the optical scan method to touchscreen
voting. There is nothing wrong with the way we are doing it now.

Truly,
T---- S--------
Tulsa, OK

Dear Ms. S--------:

Thank you for your e-mail.

Identical mark-sense optical scan voting devices manufactured by the
Business Records Corporation (now Election Systems & Software) have been
used in every precinct in the State of Oklahoma since 1992. As you know,
these devices read paper ballots marked in the voter's own hand and
preserve a complete and perfect paper audit trail. We do not have any
plans to replace our optical scanners with direct recording electronic
(touchscreen) devices, or with voting devices of any other type.

Their superior accuracy, reliability and audit capability notwithstanding,
optical scan voting devices cannot be used conveniently by some persons
with certain disabilities, including visual disabilities and motion
impairments. For those voters, the act of hand-marking the ballot cannot
be performed unaided in private. We are investigating other voting
technologies to better serve those voters; however, we expect that any
accommodative devices we integrate into the election system will be
additions to---not replacements for---the existing optical scanners.

You are correct that the link on our website labeled "Request for Proposal:
Telecommunications-based Statewide Voting System -- January 23, 2006" is
broken. It pointed to the subject request for proposal on the state
Department of Central Services' website, but the Department of Central
Services removed the document, breaking the link.

We are happy to hear you say, "Please do not change from the optical scan
method to touchscreen voting. There is nothing wrong with the way we are
doing it now." But voters who are blind and cannot mark their ballot
without assistance and voters who can mark a ballot only by holding a pen
in their mouth might not share your satisfaction with the current voting
system. To serve those voters and others with disabilities and to comply
with the disability provisions of the Help America Vote Act of 2002, the
State of Oklahoma has implemented a telecommunications-based statewide
voting system. The system allows persons with disabilities (or any
registered voter, for that matter) to vote by telephone at his or her
polling place in federal elections.

At the polling place, the voter listens to an audio ballot and votes the
ballot by pressing keys on a telephone keypad. The voting system then
produces a marked paper ballot, which is scanned and read back to the
voter, allowing the voter to confirm whether the paper ballot has been
marked according to the way he or she voted. After the voter confirms that
the ballot is correct, his or her vote is cast, and a paper ballot is
tabulated by the same mark-sense optical scanning voting device used by all
other voters statewide.

Oklahoma's telephone voting system features a fundamental and innovative
improvement over direct recording electronic (touchscreen) voting systems,
including even those that provide accommodative telephone keypad input
devices and voter verifiable receipts. Typically, a touchscreen voting
device in audio mode will read back a voter's marked ballot, but the
information read back to the voter is merely that which exists in the
device's memory. The readback may confirm the voter's selections, but
there is no way to say that the vote eventually cast is the same as that
voted by the voter or read back by the voting device. But with Oklahoma's
system, it is the paper ballot generated by the system that is scanned and
read back to the voter, and it is the paper ballot that is tabulated by our
mark-sense optical scanners, preserving the complete and perfect paper
audit trail that most Oklahoma voters seem to prefer.

Thank you for your interest. If you have other questions or concerns, let
us know.

M. Fisher
Oklahoma State Election Board.

In a nutshell, we will not be voting via touchscreen anytime soon in Oklahoma. *cue collective sigh of relief*