I heard one interesting argument in favor of touch screen systems...

I'll start off saying that I share the same concerns as everyone else over electronic voting systems.

However I think the system used in '00 was also inadequete. I'm not sure what % of votes were thrown out because of the punch card ballot system, but it didn't exactly sound like an efficient system either.

I also heard that many groups for disabled people (mainly blind and deaf) were in favor of the touch screens.

I'm curious what other alternatives there are? Are paper ballots the best way of going about it? Isn't this what is used in Canada? What alternatives can be made for those that are illiterate and blind or deaf, and/or suffering from other ailments?

Would the problems surrounding electronic voting still be as major if the verified paper trail was adopted (I am completely against it otherwise myself)?

......right here! :evilgrin:

:kick:BLACK BOX VOTING - Ballot Tampering in the 21st Century:kick:

Chapter 1
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Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9*
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13*
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Appendix
Footnotes
Index

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as long as the machines print and save paper ballots for use if a recount is deemed appropriate.

.....there is nothing wrong with touch screen machines that offer an adequate audit of the individual votes cast upon them.

The bigger problem is apathy on the part of the American electorate in as much as only HALF of the people who have the right to vote actually exercise that right and of those, far fewer take the time to adequately educate themselves about the background of the people that they vote for. To make matters worse, only a very small fraction of voters put out the effort to get involved in keeping their elections honest.

We've become so used to the idea that 'someone else' will take care of it that we've all but lost control of our elections.

If you truly love your country and what the Constitution stands for, It's time to step up to the plate and GET INVOLVED!
Sign up to work at your local polling place. Become a poll worker or watcher. Canvas your neighborhood and register people to vote. Arrange election day car pools to help others get to the polls.

If not YOU, WHO? If not NOW, WHEN?

Disabled people can have someone help them vote.

Those who do not speak the language used on a conventional ballot/butterfly/optical/whatever.

Overall, touch-screen voting is a really great thing, implemented in a horribly bad way. Rather than being the perfect interface for expressing a voting preference, which can then be tracked and managed in a number of ways, the forces that be tried to turn it into a system of voting.

Punch card ballots can work quite well if machines are kept up, election officials are honest and laws concerning recounts are followed.

No matter what technology is used, having criminals in charge of elections will cause problems.

Punchcards, when the ballot is designed properly and the VotoMatics are clean, are actually more accurate in studies than touchscreen voting, and nearly as accurate as optical scan.

The problems in Florida that were attributed to the punch cards themselves were actually a result of:

1) Improper maintenance of the VotoMatics. Miami-Dade County, for example, had not cleaned the chad out of their chad trays under the voting platform (the little desk in the booth with the open holes that the voter punches their card on) for over five years. Many of the "pregnant chads" were caused by voters being unable to fully punch through the chad waste below their card.

2) Poor ballot design that was confusing to the voters.

And punchcards provide a voter verified paper ballot as the ballot of record for the election.

...exclusively use paper ballots locally printed on supplied security paper (with every sheet and scrap accounted for), one race/question per ballot, with the elector using either the supplied pencil or any other marking device of their choice to indicate their intent.

Visually impaired electors may have someone of their choice assist them or have an election official assist them. In either case the assisting individual is placed under oath. Alternately a visually impaired elector may use a voting template to guide them as to where to make their mark. Candidate names are in alphabetical order, and can be read out loud by the assisting person, without them actually seeing the elector make their mark.

For those with other ailments, polls may be conducted at hospitals, nursing homes etc., or there is even provision for an election worker to bring a ballot box to an individual's home.

All poll workers are placed under a written and sworn oath, and even observers and/or candidate representatives are placed under oath.

At count time, only the Deputy Returning Officer can handle the actual ballots, but shows each ballot to all of the observers and makes the call as to what the elector intended. Any calls that are challenged, are noted, numbered and resolved one way or the other, before everyone goes home. Absolutely everything is logged, signed, and sealed. There just isn't any room for messing with the system.

In the last election, a month or so back, we were on our way home with the count complete, polling place disassembled, everything delivered back to the Returning Office within 45 minutes of the close of the polls.

Ours may not be a perfect system, (although I didn't see anything that could be improved) but is sure works.

HG

;-)

So reasonable.

The GOP here have a pattern of creating a problem, then proposing a "solution" that will actually make it worse. Like deregulating energy prices in California, and invading Iraq for instance.