BBV: My former Deputy campaign manager says...

[Andy_Stephenson]

"We need paper ballots now," said Julie Goldberg of Democracy For Washington. "These machines are ultimately riggable. Unless the voter can see the ballot and verify that ballot, the ballot is useless. Somebody could rig it, and there will be no way ever to know."


http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/aplocal_story.asp?category=6420&slug=WA%20Electronic%20Voting

[ewagner]

1. Comment and question

Comment first:

In any venture where "counting" is involved, there has to be a means of verifying the count. An auditable trail has to be established. There must to be two sources and they must "balance". It is a simple accounting principle and the touch screen machines violate accounting principles in a very basic way.

Now the question:

Our community uses Optical scanning devices which "read" a paper ballot which is archived. In the case of a recount or audit, the votes on the paper ballots MUST agree with the machine totals. Do you consider these types of machines to be acceptable?

[LittleApple81]

2. I do. That is what we have here and it works really well. n/t

[RedEagle]

6. Checks and Balances

You know, like the government is "supposed" to work?

Minimum requirments:

Voter Verified Paper Ballots-
These ballots are verified by the voter and are treated like any other ballot at the polls- they are deposited in a ballot box.

Robust, random, mandatory audits-
Audits of ALL the ballots used in voting, not just DRE's or optical scan. A "ballot image" is not acceptable. That's just double speak for paper printed after the fact that the voter did not verify.

Open source code-
Should be a no-brainer. And a way to insure that the certified code is the one actually in each machine. Any last minute changes, if absolutely necessary, MUST meet testing and certification requirements after use. (i.e.- they have to get certified)

[Joanne98]

3. How does he know he hasn't had any problems?

Snohomish County, which has 1,000 machines made by Sequoia Pacific, has used touch-screen voting since 2002 without any problems, said county Auditor Bob Terwilliger. On election days, the county breaks its polling sites into routes and has specially trained troubleshooters on patrol to make sure the machines don't fail.


Don't they GET IT? I can't figure out if this is corruption, cluelessness or apathy.

[Andy_Stephenson]

4. The optical scans can be a problem

but the main concern is the central count computer. In Washington state...the paper is trumped by the machine. So unless the paper is the final arbiter of the election then we still have a problem.

[ewagner]

5. Wisconsin law

requires a "canvas" within two weeks (I think) after the election. It is essentially an audit comparing one set of numbers with the other.