October 06, 2003
Must Reading: Electronic voting WILL lead to fraud!
The Agonist ties together recent reports on the flaws inherent in proprietary paperless electronic voting systems.
With the emergence of paperless billing and online banking, many of us save considerable effort, time and money every month. The transition to digital information has gone well beyond paying bills or taxes, and booking airline flights. Virtually all aspects of our lives are affected. Not surprisingly, the same technological shift has been occurring in the field of voting machines, accelerated by the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) passed by Congress at the end of 2002.Posted by Norwood at October 6, 2003 09:25 AMNo paper trail.
While differing in implementation, these systems share a crucial feature: all information about the votes is stored exclusively in digital format. The crucial difference from more traditional voting systems (e.g., punch card and optical scan machines) is that those systems keep the original vote in a physical form (usually paper) that can be directly verified by the voter. This "paper trail" can later be used during a recount, if the need were to arise.
A recount is generally possible with Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting machines, but what is recounted is simply what the machine recorded in the first place and this can be quite different from the intended vote.
Discrepancies arise through a number of factors, ranging from machine malfunction to malicious tampering with its software. Without the hard-copy redundancy offered by traditional voting systems, performing an independent audit is virtually impossible.
...so, what do we do? Can we oppose the electronic voting? Who do we contact to voice our concern(s)? The art of technology seems to have become personified to represent the power-crazed characters that were once found in an Underdog cartoon. And, what's worse is our society has become so accustomed to the "convenience" of technology, we sometimes forget how to manage to accomplish certain tasks without the assistance of some computer chip inserted in a dark crevice that nary a mind can fathom, much less locate. So, how do we find our way to the advantageous position of being one or two steps ahead of the evil-doers? I'm baffled. I need some help to direct my skepticisms to the person or people who can beat the selfish system and lend a hand in the end result of honesty prevailing. I'm lookin' for Underdog.
Posted by: Lori at October 6, 2003 10:39 AM