Wexler urges touch-screen printouts (FL)

[phoebe]

By Scott McCabe, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 10, 2003

U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler has called on Florida to spend up to $11.74 million in federal dollars on small printers for touch-screen voting machines.

In the aftermath of the 2000 presidential election, many counties, including Palm Beach County, invested millions in touch-screen voting machines. However, the new technology eliminated paper ballots and therefore manual recounts, said Wexler, D-Delray Beach.

"Without the ballot, we will place unfounded trust in touch-screen voting machines to properly record each ballot correctly," he wrote Tuesday in a letter to Secretary of State Glenda Hood. "Florida cannot afford another election fiasco."

By attaching a printer to each touch-screen machine, voters could check their ballots and then place them in a ballot box in case of a recount, he said.


http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/auto/epaper/editions/thursday/local_news_f3c04d0b168b319c009e.html

[Stephanie]

1. Wow! Now that's a REAL START!!

That is PROGRESS.

[Nambe]

2. Wexler Calls for Independent Commission on Iraq

Wexler Receives Perfect Score from Florida Public Interest Research
Group

Robert Wexler (D - FL) makes Nambe proud to be a Wellstonian Democrat.

Good stuff Phoebe!

[w4rma]

3. :)

:)

[Randi_Listener]

4. Randi Rhodes strikes again!

You can thank Randi for suggesting this to Wexler.

[RevolutionStartsNow]

5. This should be a no-brainer

Everyone should want it and support it.

[SoCalDem]

6. People are missing the whole POINT...

We do NOT need fancy "macheeens" (channeling Strom) to vote..

We need
1.paper ballots....uniformly designed (i.e. S I M P L E )
2.marking pens
3.local people hired to C O U N T the ballots
4.phones to call in vote totals
5.fax machines to send the paper tallies
6.sheriffs to "store" the locked ballot boxes in case of a recount..
7.absentee ballots only count if they ARRIVE on election day or sooner
8.absentee ballots count only is ALL printed instructions are followed
9.absentee ballots are to be collected by said sheriffes and stored with the ballot boxes until and if they are counted..

In presidential years, the "superfluous" ballot measures should NOT be included.. Those should be reserved for "off-year" elections..
The reason that ballots get so confusing (neat trick) is because of all the "extras"..

Every 4 years , people should have the RIGHT to elect a president, and not have their ballot tossed because they "made a mistake" and voted for 4 judges instead of 3 ..or they fiollowed misleading istructions and ended up messing up their ballot..

If the solution to the voting machines is to include PAPER...just eliminate the damned machines and USE paper..

Transparency and simplicity are the answers...not adding more layers to the process..

Voting should not be an obstacle course.. If a precinct is huge, then have more places to vote..

Voting should encompass a weekend.. (Sat-Mon).. Lower income people have a much harder time getting to the polls, since most of them (us) cannot regulate their own schedules, and if they travel any distance to work, they often leave before polls are open, and return after they close.. So much for them voting.. Sure they could take the day off, but they will not get paid for it..

[Imalittleteapot]

8. AMEN. SoCalDem.

Seems like a no brainer. But if touch screens are forced upon us, cudos to Wexler and anyone else who jumps on the paper vote verification bandwagon.

[MaineDem]

10. That's how we vote

I count the ballots. It's simple. But, we only have 900 registered voters.

If touch screen/mechanical voting is going to happen, I think the printout checked by the voter and deposited in the ballot box will be a good fall-back.

[Mithras61]

14. Actually, there is a good reason for touch-screen voting...

You want simplification of the voting process...

How about a ballot that PREVENTS overvotes?
>>Touch-screen voting can do that.

How about ballots with only one race per page that can have many candidates but still remain simple, and yet helps ensure that no pages are missed accidentally?
>>Touch-screen voting can do that.

How about quick, accurate counts that can be verified with a manual recount?
>> Touch-screen voting CAN do that (provided the software is open for review by independant analysts, and the device PRINTS A BALLOT).

There are many valid reasons for wanting touch-screen voting, and just as many for having them produce a paper, verifiable ballot. If you haven't already done so, I suggest you check into http://www.votescam.com">Votescam or into Bev Harris' research & articles on voting & the gaming of the system.

[The Backlash Cometh]

7. kick

*

[Nlighten1]

9. It doesn't matter if there are print outs..

they can STILL change the vote and don't think they won't.

[Q]

11. They can't change it if the voter gets to review their printed ballot.

-

[qb]

12. Actually, they can

Here's a link to the New Zealand group that recently blew the lid off the Diebold scam:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0307/S00065.htm

They demonstrated that you can change the overall vote totals that determine who is elected:


while leaving the original data intact so that spot checks do not reveal any tampering:


(these numbers are from a hypothetical case they ran on their computers)

Follow the above link for a more thorough explanation.

This shows how easily it is to tamper with touch screen vote counts without leaving a trace (they can tamper with the audit function as well)

Still, paper printouts are a good start.

[Eloriel]

13. Uh, that "New Zealand Group" is our own Bev Harris

DUer, PR professional, author (Blackbox Voting). Some of the work that went into those articles (and more to come) happened right here on DU.

Welcome to DU.

Eloriel

[qb]

15. I'm sorry I overlooked the work done here at DU.

Great work, everyone! I forwarded the information to my senator (Mark Dayton). Does anyone think it's worth mentioning to the pile of sludge calling himself a U.S. senator (Coleman)?