Thousands of uncounted votes were thrown out

The report, by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), urges greater federal government investment in upgrading voting equipment and the creation of a new agency to oversee standards.

"It is remarkable that we in America put up with a system where as many as six out of every hundred voters are unable to get their votes counted," said Caltech president David Baltimore. "Twenty-first century technology should be able to do much better than this."

The two institutes began their study after a 36-day post-vote struggle for the White House, centred on ambiguities and irregularities in the state of Florida.

There, the punch card system gave rise to dimpled ballots and hanging chads, leaving electoral officials to scrutinise ballot papers to decipher the voter's intention.

There were also problems with people being missed off or barred wrongly from the electoral roll, and being prevented from voting when they turned up at polling stations.

Reforms

The Caltech/MIT study details immediate ways to reduce the number of lost votes

• replace punch cards and lever machines with optical scanning systems
• make countywide or even statewide voter registration data available at polling stations
• make provisional ballots available

America was divided over the recounts

"We could bring about these reforms by spending around$3 per registered voter, at a total cost of about $400m," said Tom Palfrey, who led the Caltech research.

"We think the price of these reforms is a small price to pay for insurance against a reprise of November 2000."

The report also recommends longer-term reforms, including

• federal grants for upgrading equipment and registration
• research grants to test new equipment, develop better ballot designs
• setting more stringent and uniform standards on performance and testing
• creating an election administration agency to oversee grants and standards

But the team suggests a go-slow approach to developing internet voting amid concerns over fraud and coercion. Also, the study says, many Americans are still unfamiliar with the technology.