Slashdot Mirror

God bless the American Voting System!

I went looking for a press release this morning only to find that they are down for maintenance. What incredibly good and completely coincidental timing for them! No available info at all...

Here in Riverside County, CA, we have the AVC Edge from Sequoia Voting Systems. You press the "write-in" button, and type in the name.

• 38-40 pounds
• (possibly related) lead acid battery

The problem most states have is that they do not have a large pre-existing and non-partisan based bureaucracy in place with a tech background, that possesses an understanding of the potential pitfalls with electronic voting machines, along with vast experience in enforcement. These States should look for help from one that has a long history of dealing with honest and transparent auditing from electronic devices.

In Nevada, Dean Heller, the Scretary of State, decided to tap the knowledge of the Nevada Gaming Control Authority when deciding upon a system to choose. They rejected Diebold machines, judging them to be easily tampered with, and instead went with Sequoia Voting Systems, but only after a paper trail model, which was satisfactory to the state had been implemented. Sequoia's name for this version seems to be, AVC Edge® with VeriVote Printer.

Nevada was the only state in 2004 to require a paper trail in their electronic voting machines, and the election was smooth. Here's the current URL for The Clark County, Nevada(Las Vegas)Election Department's voting machine guide.

Today was my second use of the machine (I didn't vote in the primary-it tends to be pointless for non-partisan voters like me), and I have a fairly high degree of faith in its veracity. This faith is contingent on believing that any tampering from the government side would require too large of a group of individuals to keep it quiet, and that Nevada Gaming Control Authority values its integrity higher than short term partisan interests. The vote begins with signing a registered voter print-out next to my name, then a card with a programmable magnetic strip is given to me whereupon I go to a machine and insert it. Then I make my election choices using a touch screen screen. After finishing those, I am given an onscreen recap of my intended vote, and if acceptable, the vote is then printed on a continuous register tape that can be viewed behind a glass barrier, and if it is the same as my vote, I finalise my vote.

Perfect? Hardly, but it fewer problems than the punch card balloting, and the old lever voting machines that were in use before those.

Here are a few links:

• Rachel Konrad-AP, "'Paper trail' voting system used in Nevada Electronic ballot machines equipped with printers", MSNBC, September 7, 2004
• Marsha Walton, "Nevada improves odds with e-vote: Slot machine experts consulted on voting technology", CNN, October 29, 2004
• Jim Drinkard, "High-tech voting accessory: Paper", USA Today, August 8, 2005
• Associated Press, "Nevada's Seamless E-Vote", Wired, September 13, 2004

There is at least one dissenter in Nevada though:
Martin Griffith, "Citizen activist sues provider of electronic voting machines", Tahoe Daily Tribune, October 30, 2006.
Maybe a grain of salt would be a proper prescription with this link though, as 'activist' does seem to be used properly in this headline, and it is the only complaint of this nature I am aware of.

The problem most states have is that they do not have a large pre-existing and non-partisan based bureaucracy in place with a tech background, that possesses an understanding of the potential pitfalls with electronic voting machines, along with vast experience in enforcement. These States should look for help from one that has a long history of dealing with honest and transparent auditing from electronic devices.

In Nevada, Dean Heller, the Scretary of State, decided to tap the knowledge of the Nevada Gaming Control Authority when deciding upon a system to choose. They rejected Diebold machines, judging them to be easily tampered with, and instead went with Sequoia Voting Systems, but only after a paper trail model, which was satisfactory to the state had been implemented. Sequoia's name for this version seems to be, AVC Edge® with VeriVote Printer.

Nevada was the only state in 2004 to require a paper trail in their electronic voting machines, and the election was smooth. Here's the current URL for The Clark County, Nevada(Las Vegas)Election Department's voting machine guide.

Today was my second use of the machine (I didn't vote in the primary-it tends to be pointless for non-partisan voters like me), and I have a fairly high degree of faith in its veracity. This faith is contingent on believing that any tampering from the government side would require too large of a group of individuals to keep it quiet, and that Nevada Gaming Control Authority values its integrity higher than short term partisan interests. The vote begins with signing a registered voter print-out next to my name, then a card with a programmable magnetic strip is given to me whereupon I go to a machine and insert it. Then I make my election choices using a touch screen screen. After finishing those, I am given an onscreen recap of my intended vote, and if acceptable, the vote is then printed on a continuous register tape that can be viewed behind a glass barrier, and if it is the same as my vote, I finalise my vote.

Perfect? Hardly, but it fewer problems than the punch card balloting, and the old lever voting machines that were in use before those.

Here are a few links:

• Rachel Konrad-AP, "'Paper trail' voting system used in Nevada Electronic ballot machines equipped with printers", MSNBC, September 7, 2004
• Marsha Walton, "Nevada improves odds with e-vote: Slot machine experts consulted on voting technology", CNN, October 29, 2004
• Jim Drinkard, "High-tech voting accessory: Paper", USA Today, August 8, 2005
• Associated Press, "Nevada's Seamless E-Vote", Wired, September 13, 2004

There is at least one dissenter in Nevada though:
Martin Griffith, "Citizen activist sues provider of electronic voting machines", Tahoe Daily Tribune, October 30, 2006.
Maybe a grain of salt would be a proper prescription with this link though, as 'activist' does seem to be used properly in this headline, and it is the only complaint of this nature I am aware of.

Muskegon county. we had 3 touchscreen voting machines that all were down in the voting place I went to. Coworkers from 2 other counties also noticed the new touchscreen devices that looked like large typewriters with a fold up touchscreen that also had some kind of error on screen and a taped note over the screen saying "do not use".

Washtenaw might not use them but I know what I saw this morning at 7am. They also had the electronic tabulator as well and that was used for the paper system they were handing out.

in fact they looked like this but were offwhite/beige in color and actually looked like they were a bit yellowed like stored under flouresent lights all the time. I used that image to verify with others as to what they saw.

Brought to you by the marketing staff at Sequoia Voting Machines who want to thank bloggers for making Sequoia Voting Machines the number one manufacturer of voting machines in America.

Conservatives are the people alarmed by this administration's willingness to disregard traditional values and re-interpret the constitution.

Too bad that didn't stop them from re-electing him.

The GF lives in Nevada and they have had electronic voting for a little while, which scared the crap out of me until I heard it WAS NOT diebold! It is Sequoia which a quick google search doesn't seem to bring up anything really bad (unlike searching for diebold).

They electronically record the vote and then print out what your vote was and you stick that in a ballot box, so there IS a paper trail. Even if the votes screw up you can double check. And it asks you to confirm voting before you hit 'vote' and you can change it. Sounds pretty good, although it isn't open source so isn't perfect but sounds so much better then diebold!

Caveat: I didn't vote (in NV anyway) so didn't see the machines and just did a quick google search. If anyone has more information let us know :)

Yeah my GF lives in Nevada and mentioned electronic voting and my immediate thought was "oh shit, diebold" but it isn't, it's Sequoia that is actually doing this.

Now as I'm trying to sort out moving to NV, and will presumably sometime get to vote (have to be a citizen though?) does anyone know about this company. I did a quick google and found nothing bad in the stuff I found (unlike diebold where every result seems to also include the words ballot-tampering or similar!)

Despite the fact we have groups tearing up voter registration forms, the actual voting system is the best in the nation. It records your vote in three ways. First, electronically, second it prints who you vote for in plain english on a piece of paper viewed by the voter, and once the voter reviews this paper and accepts the choices, the votes are encoded into a 2D barcode printed after the list of votes, this barcode contains the list of votes for which offices.

Here is how we do it in Riverside County California.

First we use Sequoia machines http://sequoiavote.com/ which are simpler, easier, better then the dibold machines. but the most important thing is the election officer training, poll worker training I think, is the most important thing. A large number of counties that had trouble with electronic voting did not train their poll workers.

A prospective voter comes in. I first check if she is registered to vote in my percent(if not she can not vote electronically she must vote a checked ballot). If she is found in my big book o' voters, I activate a token and give it to her. This token allows her to use the machine. She goes over to the machine and puts the card in, the machine turns on and she puts in her vote by using the touch screen. When she is done the machine saves her vote on two different flash cards in the machine, and she take her token back to us so we can use it again.

At the end of the day we take one of the vote cards(the other stays in the machine)and all of the paper provisional votes to the collection point.

Some points.

Why is a paper ballot needed It is no harder to play with then an electronic card. our machines are very simple and we receive ample training to use them.

Seeing the source code would be nice, perhaps a way that anybody could come in with a usb drive(flash)and make a dump of the rom would be nice. would need to be secure.

Touch screens are not the best way to go, keys on the side would be better, ever try to use a uncalibrated/dirty touch screen, also some people have trouble getting the machine to register, mainly old people.

I don't think electronic voting is any more/less secure then paper ballots/punch machines, But I sure would not want them on the Internet.

The strange things is that the biggest slot machine manufacturer (IGT) isn't involved in the design of the system. That's acomforting as a Nevada resident because of the pull IGT has.

The ballot was pretty simple: you connected two parts of an arrow together that pointed at your choice of candidate. None of this Florida confusion, you literally pointed at who you were voting for! Then, the ballot was read by a scanner that was placed over a large box. The scanner confirmed that your vote had been counted correctly, and the box kept the ballot.

That would be the Optech Eagle, made by Sequoia Voting Systems, and popular in Northern California as well. They also make touch-screen systems, but they do note on the home page that it prints a paper copy for voter verification (not a batch print), and that their machines got a green light from the Nevada Gaming Commission, which probably has stricter standards on condom vending machines than Diebold has on their voting machines.

The same ballots are used for in-person and mail-in ballots.

• Each polling place only needs one machine. Instead of half a dozen touch screen voting stations, we set up simple plastic booths and give the voter a paper ballot and a pen. When they're done voting, they walk over to the counting machine and feed their ballot in. Typically, they spend a long time filling out the ballot, and 30s having their votes counted).
  
• If the machine breaks or if there's a power failure, we can continue to collect votes (the paper ballots go into a sealed, locked box to be machine-read later).
  
• If there were a total failure of (or failure of confidence in) the technology, the ballots could be easily hand-counted by humans.
  
• If a disabled voter needs to vote, it's a simple matter of getting a paper ballot and pen to them, rather than having to get them to come to a touch-screen station.
  

"The corporations don't count the votes"

Except for this one and this one and this one.

According to the article, the company that manufactures the machines is Sequoia Voting Systems Inc., who have been in the Florida papers for having a VP who has been indicted in an elections kickback scandal in Louisiana. You must read this URLon the subject!

Further research on the web suggests that an unwholesome number of people involved in selling election services and products have, not backgrounds in (say) accounting, but instead, backgrounds in (you guessed it) politics.

According to a St. Petersburg Times article:

"New York safemaker Jacob H. Myers invented a mechanical voting machine in 1892 and his company later became Automatic Voting Machines, which Sequoia acquired in 1984.

"[Sequoia is the] only company whose touch screen product has been successfully tested in an actual election in a large county -- the 2000 general election in Riverside County, Calif.

"[Sequoia] has installed other older systems in three Florida counties. Sales are down 90 percent after the 2000 election as local officials await federal funding before buying new equipment.

Sequoia is a subsidiary of Jefferson Smurfit Group, a leading manufacturer of paper products."

Jefferson Smurfit, who in reality only owns 15% of Sequoia, is primarily a manufacturer of paper and packing products, based in Ireland.

The remaining 85% of the company is owned by De La Rue of Hampshire, England, an enormous company of 7000+ employees with a background in secure printing (providing paper for over 150 national currencies, including of course the UK) and a strong interest (20%) in Camelot, the operator of the British lottery.

Other than not seeming to take their security as seriously as they ought to, DLAR seems like a squeaky-clean company, and probably has a bright future. Especially if they can keep U.S. elections secret from the population.

4. The voter is prevented from voting for the wrong party...

???

You can have a go with an interactive demo here and view an automatic demo (with a picture of the machine) here . These may not be the actual machines used in Florida, but are likely similar.

As you can see it is a simple text-based touch-screen menu system (although elsewhere on the site they talk about showing pictures of candidates). A patent is (or at least should be) only applicable when there is something novel. They might have novel auditing stuff on the back-end, but there doesn't seem to be anything new here.