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Florida Ruling May Lead To E-voting Paper Trail
dorkus123 points out this Palm Beach Post story which begins "An administrative law judge over-ruled an administrative decision Friday that the 15 counties that use touch-screen voting systems must be able to perform manual recounts in extremely close elections." Prior to this, counties using touch-screen voting were exempt from a requirement requiring that certified voting machines be amenable to manual recounts. wierzpio adds a link to the AP's similar story.
Why would it be so damn hard for the e-voting machines to print out a receipt after a person votes - a receipt that is retained by the states? The whole point of e-voting is ease of use - maybe even cheaper deployment. But why would it be so hard to implement such a system...or is it all politics & big business?
A blog like any other.
you can steal the election by the machines. Imagine one corrupt official (not that unrealistic) who changes the votes after the election is complete. How would you know there was voter fraud with the current electonic voting machines?
Some people die at 25 and aren't buried until 75. -Benjamin Franklin
The paper trail is not best implemented as a "Receipt" for voting, as that denies anonymity and allows coercion.
The right way for paper-backed electronic voting to take place is to have the electronic system present an easy-to-use interface, which can be adapted on-the-fly for various limitations in voters (deaf, blind, unable to grasp objects, etc.). Have that interface be the way to vote. Then print the ballot out on a strip of paper and give that paper to the voter. The voter then walks to the ballot box and places the ballot in, just like we do now.
This eliminates ambiguity in deciding whether a particular ballot is valid or invalid, since the ballot would have a clear indication of the voters' intents.
Sure you can also get a quick, accurate count from the aper-ballot-printing machines, but if you want to do a "Recount", then there aren't any ballots for corrupt or inept voting officials to declare as invalid.
How is a laser printed reciept placed in a secure box any different than a punched card or marked paper slip placed in a secure box?
In theory, it should be impossible to create an invalid paper receipt.
Compare to hanging chads or someone who checked more than a check only one box.
Florida has had nearly the same machines spitting out the same paper lottery ticket, keeping the same journal, uploading each set of digits scanned from the same "blacken in the circle" forms for nearly * 15 FUCKING YEARS *
Change the firmware, repurpose some hardware, and give us a goddamned voting system with some EQUALLY STRINGENT ACCOUNTING
This process has been carried out billions of times by now, and you'd think that they'd try to utilize some of the expertise accumulated through so many, many, many, many, many drawings (like mini-elections themselves.)This is important: -------------------
If the correct count is close (i.e. a human would be likely to get it wrong), then we bring in the humans to add error. So yeah, stealing the election...but not by the machines.
During the 2000 election, the Diebold machines in Florida's Volusia County returned negative 16,022 votes for one candidate. Obviously those infallible machines were right, and we wouldn't want to introduce human error by having a recount.
...like Maryland. E-voting without a paper trail is total crap.
And closed source e-voting is even stupider. Public systems that are the basis of our freakin' democracy (or constitution-based federal republic; strong democratic tradition; whatever you want to call it) should be available for everyone to see.
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The historic problem with this approach is also accountability - ballot stuffing (i.e. putting lots of extra paper ballots in the box) has always been a problem with paper ballots. If there are a suspicious number of votes in the box, how do you tell who put the extras in, which candidate they were voting for, etc?
R esidents Party...
- Stupid Party...
There is a bit of info on this page about the problem. The parties used to actually force people to vote on coloured paper depending on who they were supporting, and they made the ballot box transparent - so they could always tell who you were voting for! Of course, if all the officials at a particular voting station were corrupt, then practically anything could happen.
And, while I agree that without the correct technology paper voting as it is used in the UK and Australia is a much better plan, it's not as though the British system hasn't been the home of massive electoral fraud over the years. Blackadder probably sums it up pretty well:
Political Commentator: And now it's time, I think, for a result, and tension is running very high here. Mr. Blackadder assures me that this will be the first honest vote ever in a rotten borough. And I think we all hope for a result which reflects the real needs of the constituency. And behind me...yes, I can just see the Returning Officer moving to the front of the platform.
Blackadder: As the Acting Returning Officer of Dunny-on-the-World...
Commentator: The acting Returning Officer, Mr. E. Blackadder, of course. And we're all very grateful, indeed, that he stepped in at the last minute, when the previous Returning Officer accidently brutally stabbed himself in the stomach while shaving.
Blackadder: I now announce the number of votes cast as follows: Brigadier General Horace Bolsom...
Commentator: Cheap-Royalty-White-Rat-Catching-And-Safe-Sewage-
Blackadder: No votes.
Blackadder: Ivor Jest-ye-not-madam Biggun...
Commentator: Standing-At-The-Back-Dressed-Stupidly-And-Looking
Blackadder: No votes.
Blackadder: Pitt, the Even Younger...
Commantator: Whig...
Blackadder: No votes.
Commentator: Oh, there's a shock.
(Pitt the Even Younger turns to his mum and cries)
Blackadder: Mr. S. Baldrick...
Commentator: Adder Party...
Blackadder: Sixteen thousand, four hundred, and seventy-two.
(Cheers are heard.)
...
Commentator: And now, finally, a word with the man who is at the center of this bi- election mystery: the voter himself. And his name is Mr. E. Bla-- Mr. Blackadder, *you* are the only voter in this rotten borough...?
Blackadder: Yes, that's right.
Commentator: How long have you lived in this constituency?
Blackadder: Since Wednesday morning. I took over the previous electorate when he, very sadly, accidently brutally cut his head off while combing his hair.
Commentator: One voter; 16,472 votes. A slight anomaly...?
Blackadder: Not really -- you see, Baldrick may look like a monkey who's been put in a suit and then strategically shaved, but he is a brilliant politician. The number of votes I cast is simply a reflection of how firmly I believe in his policies.
Read Pynchon.