Reply #11: The Essence

[GuvWurld]

The essence of the visual piece I described would be the finest possible distillation of steps involved in both hand counting paper ballots and an electronic voting system. I suppose it could be this:

--casting the vote
--storing cast votes
--accessing stored cast votes
--counting cast votes
--aggregating local vote counts
--storing ballots of record

Perhaps someone could distill it further or better, or might choose different words. That's all good for discussion. Frankly, I don't want to debate the finer points of this. I want someone with some art skills to run with it. How would each of these steps be depicted under the contrasted systems? With HCPB I believe the illustration should demonstrate transparency and security and verifiability. With e-voting, there will be one or more points at which secrecy will be introduced - this is where the question marks go, and then where the text is connected. We are showing the difference between no basis for confidence and a rational basis for confidence; conditions guaranteed to produce an inconclusive outcome and inherent uncertainty vs. a permanent record that will repeatedly yield the same results. Who will volunteer to help create this?

Incidentally, I have a second idea that builds off the first. It isn't as detailed in my mind's eye but the concept is to use the same e-vote images and maybe just a finger pressing the button to cast the vote. The tag is "the magic of voting."

OK, back to the proposal. About the only thing concrete I've been able to determine is that the numbers appear feasible, in terms of getting enough people to count a reasonable number of projected votes in a rather short time. I haven't yet figured out how to depict this sensibly in a table or chart but it at least serves me personally as a feasibility test.

For how much I've been talking about this project, the progress is insufficient. I'm also starting to feel a little pressed for time given, not so much the date, but other things that are happening here. I'm going to sign off here so I can blog about all that other stuff and get everyone caught up. Any and all assistance welcomed on this hcpb proposal. Thanks in advance.