Newsday on computerized voting

Marie Cocco
In Computerizing Voting, Memory Would Help
July 3, 2003


The message turned up in my electronic mailbox with the mortgage-rate come-ons and the dieting deals. It seemed no more significant than the usual spam.

"The most important legislation this year," was the hyperbolic headline in the "subject" field. I could not have guessed this would have some truth.

It was a pitch for legislation that would require governments to ensure that their voting systems, especially new computer systems that election officials are rushing to buy, produce a paper record so voters are able to verify that their ballot has been properly recorded before they leave the polls. The record would be kept locked to provide a backup in recounts, an old-fashioned double-check to make sure newfangled technology hasn't run amok......


http://www.newsday.com/news/columnists/ny-vpcoc033356532jul03,0,6010940.column

Now lets see if it stays there

now all they have to do is to figure out how to make the paper trail print the incorrect vote---
I vote for A--my reciept says A--
but the locked paper trail receipt (hidden from my view)says B
and the electronic vote says B


shrubbya wins with 20 percent of the vote

Have the receipt printed and given to the voter for confirmation that it records the vote properly, THEN put that vote into the lock box.

You do not want to have the voter touch the paper. This allows for too many problems. Human nature is to make mistakes like taking the paper with you or someone can switch the paper with their own paper or they can destroy the paper. This also keeps someone from sticking toothpaste in the receipt slot to jam the printer. You have to therefore put the paper under glass. Let the voter read it and when they confirm it, it dumps in a box. Go to vote-trakker.com or accupoll.com for more info.

I know I will every time. Yes, I want my receipt.

"Many election officials and the League of Women Voters resist the paper-trail idea. The officials already are scrambling, with limited funds, to update antiquated systems. And the league, according to president Kay Maxwell, sees the requirement as a diversion that will mean "extra work, extra cost and delays."

But the purpose of voting reform isn't to make life easier for election clerks. It is to make elections fairer and to restore the frayed confidence of voters - the people who are supposed to count most of all. "

Seems like the only other folks against paper-trails for PC voting systems are Republicans (like Chuck Hagel and Saxby Chambliss?)....

There is a tremendous need for voter verifiable elections. The money is not the key issue. I showed that the money spent by congress (well it isnt all appropriated yet) equals poll workers pay for less than 8 years.

The arguments agains the printers are very weak. They say that they will run out of ink (the companies who make these types of machines use thermal printers!). They say they will jam (of all the cash registers, how many do you see jam in a month or year?) yet the paper should be under glass so noone can touch it or foul it up.

There are members of the League that support paper and yet are squelched by the national League and they do not understand the issue. No matter how much I loathe ESS (the company Hagel has invested), they are the first major company to support paper records (even if it is to help their lack of sales in big states like CA).

There is no extra work. The paper is contained in a box. OK the big extra work is to plug in the printer and unplug it. Then carry all those receipts in a bag (average weight of receipts 1000 <5 lbs). Sheesh!

The true force behind the anti-paper movement is the capitalistic greed of four companies (ESS, Hart, Sequoia, and Diebold). They do not want to change their configuration because they know that other smaller companies are ahead of the curve. The big four also know that patents protect the smaller companies from the big guys using their lobbying weight to get the contracts(if the contracts required paper records). I think that the linking politics to vendors will never be a way to fight this issue. It is more basic (greed). All of these companies would support anyone if it means sales. Corporations' money follows candidates, not leads.

What is so frustrating is that the organizations that are supposed to be neutral like the LWV do not understand the issues. They take sides in a technology argument when they should be technology neutral. I have heard people say that the tally tape is a paper record. It just has totals, no individual votes. It has no meaning without each vote to back it up.

Happy Monday
JNC

... whatever happened with that anyway? Is she gonna blow it open this week?