Feds to Recommend Paper Trail for Electronic Votes

flanksteak writes "The National Institute of Standards and Technology is going to recommend the decertification of all electronic voting machines that don't create paper records. Although it sounds like this recommendation may have been in the works for a while, the recent issues in Sarasota, FL (18,000 missing votes) have brought the issue a higher profile. The most interesting comment in the story comes near the end, in which the author cites a study that said paper trails from electronic voting machines aren't all they're cracked up to be."

Comments

Paper voting!

[Quietude]

Why do we have to overly complicate voting in this country anyway? Other Western democracies make do just fine with pencils and paper, so what's the reasoning behind using electronic voting machines in a country where most people can't set the clocks on their VCRs?

Best solution I've seen

[olivrwendl]

http://www.forbes.com/opinions/2006/11/10/voting-f raud-security-tech-security-cz_bs_1113security.htm l

This article came out in forbes a while back and the author has the best solution I've seen for verifying votes on electronic voting machines. He proposes having a touchscreen computer to make all of your ballot selections and when you are done and hit vote it prints out a piece of paper with your sslections. You then can verify your votes were recorded correctly before putting your ballot in a box so that it can be run through an optical scanner at the end of the day to count the votes.

Re:Best solution I've seen

[spisska]

The problem with this idea is the same problem with all electronic machines: It's a colossal expense to do something that would be handled just as well with $0.10 marker.

There are problems with any voting system. Here's the basic rundown:

1) Mechanical lever, paperless: a machine in which the voter sees the whole ballot, sets switches to indicate their vote, and pulls a master lever to cast the vote, which mechanically adjusts a counter mechanism that is recorded by hand after voting has closed. Problem: the gears can jam. This has happened before, and officials can generally identify jammed machines by an anomolous number of 9s -- the machine fails to advance beyond 9 in a given column because that requires the turning of two counting wheels rather than one, Trust me it's happened, and this is why mechanical levers countinue to be used in only a very few jurisdictions.

2) Punch card, paper: the voter indicates their choice by putting the ballot into a machine which makes a physical hole in the ballot that can then be read and counted by machine. Problems: There is no chance to correct a mistaken vote except by spoiling the ballot. An incomplete puch can lead to incorrect tabulation (hanging chads). Perforations that were not voted can still fall out before tabulation, meaning an overvote and an invalid ballot. Florida 2000. This is why virtually no jurisdictions still use punch cards.

3) Optical scan, paper: the voter indicates their choice by marking a paper ballot -- generally by making a mark in a given area of the ballot. Problems: Voters fail to follow directions and make marks other than where they're supposed to (eg circling names rather than checking boxes). Optical scanners identify stray marks as votes (or overvotes), or fail to identify votes. Folded or damaged ballots (particularly in the case of absentee ballots) cannot be read by machine. Optical scan ballots are still very popular, and probably the best solution now being used.

4) DRE - direct recording electronic, paperless or optionally with a voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT): A voter makes their selection through a touchscreen, keypad, or audio interface and the vote is recorded digitally onto a removable storage unit -- generally a PCMCIA card. Some units feature a simultaneous paper record to present the voter with a hard copy representing their vote. Problems: No transparency between the casting and counting process. No software independence -- the tabulation of votes is dependent on the same software that records the votes. No independent auditability -- there is no way of verifying that the voting and/or tabulation software has not been compromised. No physical record of the vote when there is no VVPAT, and no dependable physical record when there is a VVPAT.

Paper trails are the most failure-prone parts of the machine and offer no effective protection of the process -- printers can fail, paper loaded incorrectly, ink runs out, paper jams, paper runs out, etc, etc, etc. If it can happen it will, especially in a machine whose hardware is little tested and whose software is engineered on short notice (due to election law that often changes dangerously close to elections), and a machine designed to be used only a couple times per year.

5) All-mail: this is a system that is being pioneered by Washington State -- all voters vote by absentee ballot delivered through the mail. Eliminates the need for polling places, poll workers, etc. Problem: Opens the door widely to massive vote fraud.

6) Colored Stones Cast into an Urn, paperless: A very effective system used in ancient republics wherein voters would indicate their choices by placing stones of different colors into given vessels to indicate their vote. No question of hanging chads, hacked machines, misunderstood ballots, etc. Problems: Not machine readable, somewhat impractical for large precincts and long ballots, expensive and difficult to transport and verify stone counts. Very, very few governments or municipalities have used this me

Paper trails vs. paper ballots

[MarkusQ]

Part of the problem with the "paper trail" issue is that the idea keeps getting transformed, by gradual steps, into something that is totally useless. The paper gets put behind glass, printed on a roll, no recourse if it's too fant to read, etc. until there's no reason to suspect that it represents the voter's intentions and not some hacker's.

The ballot needs to be tangible, a physical object that the voter can inspect (handle, read and verify) and it should be the official record of the vote. If you want to have the touch screen machine give you an insta-count, fine (though I wouldn't) but the actual ballots should also be counted, every time, by hardware too dumb to hack, and if the counts differ the physical ballot count should be the one that is used.

--MarkusQ

Re:As a matter of accounting....

[jipis]

There is a fundamental difference between an ATM and a voting machine, though. In an ATM, you MUST keep track of the user who was standing at the machine doing the transaction. With a voting machine, you MUST NOT keep track of who is standing at the machine at any given time. Doing so could leak information about how that person voted.

And, as has been proven, a company that can do one well can real screw up the other (hint: begins with a 'D' and rhymes with "re-told").

-J

Re:And this will accomplish what?

[Bob 4knee]

Not a receipt. A receipt is a bad idea. A verifiable paper trail. If you need to involve computers (the only semi-legitimate reason that I've seen involves handicapped voters), then have the computer print the marked ballot. The person inspects it and then puts it into the ballot box. That is the official ballot. The person does not take a receipt with them. That makes it too easy to coerce people to vote a certain way, or punish them if they vote the wrong way.