Electronic Voting: Hacked?

I'm going to use this thread as an opportunity to ask something I've been wondering for a while: What are the advantages of voting machines? Seriously, I really can't think of anything. I suppose that "faster results" would be one, but to actually be able to do that you need voting machines at each voting stations, so you're essentially buying a shitload of machines that get used once every 4 years. I can't see that costing less than the old pen/paper method, and when you're counting those, anyone can watch to see if people are trying to change the results. The article also mentions something that amounts to "making voting easier" but who the hell isn't able to put a check into a box next to the name of the candidate they want, yet would figure out a voting machine?

Is this simply a case of "hight tech = better" or something like that?

Jam it back in, in the dark.