Florida Dems to test Populex voting machines at convention.

http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20031204/NEWS/312040374/1004

SNIP..."TALLAHASSEE -- An Illinois company is touting a new voting machine that may allay fears in the ballot booth -- a touchscreen machine that creates an accompanying paper ballot recording every vote.

The company is seeking approval to sell the machines to Florida counties, but in the meantime Florida Democrats will try out the system this weekend at its state convention.

The company, Populex, will show off its equipment at the state Democratic meeting in Orlando, making the machines available for delegates in a mock election on various questions on issues the party's interested in.

While Populex is getting a forum to show off its equipment -- the young company's first voting machine -- the Democrats are getting a forum to remind voters about past election difficulties they claim hurt their party....."

Not familiar with this company, but I like the paper ballot created with each vote.

Paper ballot is what we want; and my county has already switched to the black boxes - to the tune of millions of dollars. Maybe this will eventually force all the manufacturers to get their houses in order.

wonder if the corporate heads are bush worshipers?

I wonder what Bev Harris' info on that company says. I like the paper ballot.

other than that...

Perhaps there is a human readable ballot that goes with the bar code? Doesn't appear to be.

Carlucci, of the Carlyle Group, has some involvement with this company.

And this still isn't audited.

Bev Harris
http://www.blackboxvoting.org

if the same computer is tabulating something different? Will YOUR paper receipt indicating you voted for Dean be the one that actually accompanied a switcheroo vote for Bush? I don't understand what good a simple paper receipt could do.

There needs to be a two part system, with the paper receipts going into a seperate "lock box" and then used to reconcile the electronic votes somehow.

Bev, as much as I've followed your great work, (I've posted the link to the chapters on my site), I don't know how you've addressed this. Maybe I should know, but I dont!

Can someone explain to me why the mere presence of a paper receipt will do anything if the computer is still fudging the numbers? If two weeks after the election they think there is a problem, how many people do you think will still have that receipt, and will turn it in to the recount people? 30%? That sounds too generous to me, with what I know about marketing and human behavior.

The paper ballot goes into a lockbox at the voting place. It stays there in case of a recount. We couldn't allow paper receipts to actually leave the voting place because that would invite vote-selling.

VVAT - Voter Verified Audit Trail - is what we want.

You're also right that this still isn't good enough. What Bev and the others are also asking for is random audits, spot checks, of the machine total vs. the paper ballot total.

Ideally, I'd like to see the machine count used just as a sort of exit poll, while the paper ballots are hand-counted and constitute the final tally. But I'm a dreamer.

I have some friends going to the convention, maybe we will hear more.

This article says that Populex prints numbers which the voter can check.

I think it would be better to print candidate-names, also.

There could be a mess-up involving what number represents what candidate.


http://www.securepoll.com/Archives/Archive82.htm

There is simply no way to make these things *truly* demonstrably fair.
Don't take my word for it - take Rebecca Mercuri's.
Bottom line is, you, the voter, have NO way of knowing what's being recorded within the machine - sure, it could spit out a reassuring paper ballot, but how do you know it corresponds to what the machine memory records? You don't.
Any system of voting that relies on counting anything other than a hard copy ballot is fundamentally suspect.
"Here, trust us, we've worked out the bugs, this'll make you feel better." Would you trust your right to government by, of, and for the people to a spoonful of pablum like that?

It does not make sense to me. How could the voter even know if it verifies their vote? Am expecting a friend to check in by cell phone from the convention, will ask what they think.