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I have to admit, I am haven't been following this issue that closely, other than knowing that groups are calling for a paper trail for electronic voting machines, if not abolishing them altogether. Personally, I enjoy the old northeast level machines, but having used fully electronic machines (and everything is certainly becoming electronic) I do not wish to eliminate them There are certainly solutions to any perceived problem and here is one. Complete the voting process using the electronic machine. Results are saved as normal.machine prints out a confirmation form.Deposit this form in a box (or somewhere secure). Independently compare the results of the electronic with the paper (scanned?) results. They should match. It should certinaly be more difficult to rig both sides. In addition, this provides the paper trail that some want, with the ease of electronic screens. If both counts match, everything should be ok. The paper trail printout could be some sort of non-human readable format. I remember that fax transmissions were encoding data as a visual image map. Maybe some sort of algorithm would work here, (since the data is just a bunch of bits anyway) This sort of reminds me of punchcards. Anyway, that seems to work. I'll need to read up on the issue, since the paper trail is coming up for referendum here in Florida. Weird that those pushing for a paper trail also are those against picture ID for voting. doesn't make sense to me, but that is another issue.
dm2112, Sep 29 2006
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Sounds pretty solid but what do you do if the counts do not match?
And how can you be sure that the paper trail also has not been corrupted. A readable certified copy of the paper trail should be issued to each voter as he/she votes so that the voter knows the paper trail is not corrupt. Photo IDs are requested as an attempt to disqualify voters that may not agree with the party in power like older people and minorities who do not have drivers licenses. It is one facet of the general corruption that now infects US democracy.
I find it appalling that we don't already have a working system. From practically anywhere in the world, I can access my bank account, credit cards, cable bills, orders from online shops, auctions, college financial aid—a slew of content that everyone uses. As a citizen, I should be able to go to a voting booth in any state, sign in as myself, receive a ballot tailored to my county/voting district, receive a paper receipt which I can verify online, and perhaps visit a site where vote tallies are being tabulated real-time, with any sort of report that I may wish for.
It seems that the reason we don't already have such a marvelous system is that each party in each state is trying to put forth their own proprietary system, with secret ways to disenfranchise voters of their choosing. Diebold machines leap immediately into mind.
Here is a way to make the paper trail true.
Vote on Paper by bubbling in the oval.Insert Ballot into Vote Scanner which detects overvotes, etc and shows the voter how the vote will be read.Agree? Yes/No. Choose No and Vote againChoose Yes and the Paper is pulled into a box and the vote is talllied.
Wait Wait, there's more.At 7 PM, the county picks five precincts at random and these precincts must be counted by hand downtown in front of witnesses.
When the handcount is finished, the machine count is read and compared to the handcount.
When everything agrees, the other precincts can be published.
Who misses out on this? Only the newscasters "Bozo and Bozette at 6 and 10".
Who feels good about the vote being true? The voter feels confident that the vote is true. The paper ballots remain in strorage for four years. The photo image of the ballot is available online for oversight.
Remember this: The most ardent enemies of an improved voting system are those who cheated best using the old system.
When I hear about people who hate modern voting machines... I wonder if they thought they did, um, a "better" job when they counted the votes manually.
Here is a radical idea for the US crowd.
Voting slips with only a few candidates on each slip clearly marked with little room for error. Voters mark the boxes next to the candidates they want with an X. One slip per position and locked ballot boxes for each position.
It works in Canada for over 20 million people, could it not work for each riding in the US?
Now you have a proper paper trail and no little chits or corrupted binary codes will be able to steal elections ever again.