E-Ballots: Will your vote count? From PC WORLD

I've been saying for awhile that the techies need to get involved in making sure e-voting is FAIR. So far, it hasn't been a very "mainstream" issue among "mainstream" techies. PC WORLD leads its February issue with this:

E-Ballots: Will Your Vote Count?

Controversy surrounds e-voting systems set for wide use in 2004 elections.

Electronic voting systems are already in place in eight states and were used in last November's elections. Many more states will use them in this year's primaries and in the presidential election. Good news, right? After all, computers have to be more accurate and less subject to fraud than old chad-prone paper ballots--don't they?

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Critics say no, claiming that there are numerous problems with oversight and monitoring of the electronic election process. But change is already under way, including several federal bills that would require some form of permanent and immediate ballot trail, and better security.

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So where is the problem? According to Electronic Frontier Foundation activist Ren Bucholz, it comes down to three major things. The federal testing standards date back to 1990, and were only superficially updated in 2000. Government agencies plan further updates to these standards, but that has not happened yet.

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Even e-voting's most ardent critics acknowledge that election fraud is at least as old as the Republic. They are working not to block adoption, they say, but to ensure that e-voting systems are secure and reliable, and allow for independent recounts. The ETC and forthcoming paper receipts should help serve that goal.


The entire article can be found here:
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,114032,tk,wb010504x,00.asp

Yes...it does....not EVERYONE is as "plugged in" politically as we are and have had this issue even PRESENTED to them. This article is a good introduction - and a warning to pay attention. Sorry it didn't say Rove is stealing all elections and Diebold is the corporate face of Satan. Sometimes a little info is better than a lot of info that MOST people don't understand.