There is a growing trend in this country toward voting by absentee ballot.

Year after year, the percentage of the electorate choosing to vote by this method increases. In the June 6 primary election in Riverside County, the birthplace of electronic voting, 49 percent of those voting used an absentee ballot.

There is little question that a large percentage of these voters have selected to do so due to concern about the accuracy of electronic voting. No election passes without the horror stories of machine failures from touchscreen anomalies to machines recording more votes than registered voters using them.

Controversy concerning ownership of the companies manufacturing electronic voting machines, as well as persistent reports of unapproved software being used in them, adds fuel to the fire.

There is another alternative for those not trusting the touchscreens. Despite being poorly publicized, paper ballots were available to those visiting their polling places in Riverside County.

While most questioning the accuracy and accountability of the electronic voting machines probably chose to vote absentee, more than150 registered voters in Riverside County asked for and received a paper ballot.

The paper ballots are a story in themselves. To receive a paper ballot, a voter had to ask for one and apply his or her signature next to their name in the precinct roster, exactly the same as any other voter at that precinct.

From this point forward, things took a bizarre turn. The person requesting a paper ballot was handed one or two sheets of ordinary white 8 1/2-by-11-inch paper with ballots Xeroxed on them. The papers were photocopies of what appeared to be the same as the sample ballots sent out to voters in the mail. They contained no receipt, serial number or authenticity marking indicating they were produced by the registrar of voters office.

After filling out their selections on their paper ballot without any provisions for privacy, the voter was handed an envelope in which to insert their ballot. After sealing, submitting the envelope required the voter to print their name, declare that they were 18 years of age, a citizen, lived at their address and had not previously voted in this election.

They then had to declare, under penalty of perjury, that those statements were true, then date, sign, state their birth date and fill in their address on the envelope. In order to receive that paper ballot, their name had to appear on the precinct roster and they had to sign in.

When the paper ballots were opened, those casting them lost all privacy. Their name was on the envelope and their votes in plain sight when removed. So much for anonymity! Yet, the best was kept for last, completely out of sight of the concerned voter.

How were their votes counted? In an act of disrespect that defies all logic and reason, Riverside County Registrar of Voters Barbara Dunmore decided that she would cast their ballots into the very machines they chose to avoid instead of tallying them by hand.

We have certainly lowered our standards of behavior if this is all we can expect of a registrar of voters entrusted with our votes, the backbone of democracy.

- Art Cassel lives in Riverside.