Voting Machines vs. Poll Workers

First plastic post. Just a quick one to expand on the voter fraud/machine-counted vs. hand-counted ballot issue.

The NYTimes Sunday Magazine did a story on electronic and touch screen voting machines last weekend. The cover almost says it all:


But not quite. The article brings up that in many situations, poll workers are not trained properly about how to operate or set up voting machines. Or they are just oblivious and incompetent, losing flash drives from electronic voting machines, leaving church doors open the night before voting with vulnerable machines inside, etc etc.

[I]n the real world of those who conduct and observe voting machines, the realistic threat isn’t conspiracy. It’s unreliability, incompetence and sheer error.

Whether or not people are dissuaded from voting because they can't be sure their votes are counted is one thing. If there were to be a proven conspiracy in the voting process, that's another beast entirely. But what if you just don't trust computers OR human beings to accurately report your vote?

What kind of training do poll workers receive anyway?