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Secrecy of Voting Machines Ballots At Risk
JimBobJoe writes "On Monday, Cnet published the findings I made as an Ohio poll worker regarding a major oversight in my state's election's system: Using a combination of public records, plus the voting machine paper trails, you can figure out how people voted. Though most agree that voting machine paper trails are a necessity, they can cause privacy problems which aren't easily mitigated. 'It's an especially pointed concern in Ohio, a traditional swing state in presidential elections that awarded George Bush a narrow victory over John Kerry three years ago. Ohio law permits anyone to walk into a county election office and obtain two crucial documents: a list of voters in the order they voted, and a time-stamped list of the actual votes. "We simply take the two pieces of paper together, merge them, and then we have which voter voted and in which way," said James Moyer, a longtime privacy activist and poll worker who lives in Columbus, Ohio.'"
In the 1980s (and probably subsequently) it was normal practice for Special Branch to inspect the ballot papers of those who voted for parties which were considered potentially subversive (Communists, BNP, National Front.) They could then match those voting papers to the voters (by dint of the fact that the voter's name was written on a list next to the voting paper number) and keep a handy database of undesirables.
Several time in the past, how you voted could have meant your job and sometimes your life. History has this thing where it tends to repeat itself.
Imagine somethings like this that could happen if people knew how you voted.
Lets say your landlord found that you voted for the property tax increase to fund the schools. So he raises your rent and only the rent of people who voted for it. (or raises your rent 6 months in advance of everyone else's because of it)
What about you boss finding out that you voted from someone who was going to raise taxes on them and increase regulation in the field your job covers. So now you are the first to be let go when business slows down because of it.
How about a problem with crime in your neighborhood and nothing is getting done about it because no one in your neighborhood voted for the current mayor. But other neighborhoods seem to have extra patrols and so on.
How about when you get pulled over for something minor like a tail light being out or something. The deputy find you voted for the current sheriff or mayor or whatever and gives you a warning but when he finds out you didn't vote for his guy gives you an $90 ticket.
If some people who have a little bit of power over you knew who you voted for or against, they could use that for other then honorable reasons.
For that matter why should anyone have access to the records of who voted at all?
The reason that data is public is because it's useful for politicians and their campaigns. For instance, if only 20% of registered voters show up to vote for the odd-year city council races, then the data of which 20% show up is invaluable. The city council candidates only need to send out campaign materials to those voters who reliably vote at those elections and can ignore people who only show up for the presidential elections.
Another example is that the poll workers (at least here in Ohio) maintain several lists of voters who voted during the day (it's a slight pain in the ass actually because someone has to be assigned to the boring job of checking off on two or three lists who came in to vote.)
Those lists are posted periodically during the day...I want to say the first one is posted at 11am.
So at 11am, a list of all the registered voters in the precinct is posted, with check marks next to the names of the voters who voted.
During the presidential election, people working for the campaigns come down and look at the lists. If they know that John Smith is a registered Republican voter (party registration is another public record) and they see he hasn't voted by 11am, they might give him a call to make sure he comes by. If he hasn't voted by 4pm (which I believe is the posting of the last list) then they might send someone over to his house because they know he is an older gentlemen who has voted consistently Republican for decades now and his vote will be invaluable.
I find those voter lists postings a terrible pain, particularly because they're an obligation of the poll workers but their purpose is to help the candidates themselves, not the integrity of the voting process itself.