How Safe Is Your E-Vote? Elections go digital, but experts fear a crash.

[Dover]

How Safe Is Your E-Vote?

Elections go digital, but experts fear a crash


It's either the best thing ever to happen to elections, or the stupidest blunder our elected officials have ever made; the savior of our democracy, or a conspiracy to steal it; an idea whose time has come, or a hapless symbol of society's naive faith in technology.

Electronic voting hasn't completely boiled over into the nation's greater consciousness ... yet. But it's on a high simmer. It has staunch defenders, passionate detractors, and one way or another, it will make a huge impact on the 2004 elections.

The push for computerized voting gained momentum after the 2000 presidential election, also known as the biggest electoral fiasco in U.S. history. An appalled nation learned what an imperfect science elections are – hanging chads, allegations of fraud, and butterfly ballots making Jews vote for Pat Buchanan. Surely, we were told, in our modern computer age, we could do better than this.

In some eyes, computers seemed the obvious answer. No chads. No stray marks. No spoiled ballots (in fact, no paper). No need for human judgment about "voter intent" at all. The result was the 2002 federal Help America Vote Act – which does not specifically require electronic voting, but does provide funding to help states replace punch-card and lever voting systems. Many jurisdictions all over the nation are choosing "direct recording electronic" systems.

But while election administrators are generally enthralled with the new technology – and a number of companies are rushing to meet the demand – others are not embracing DRE voting. And the critics are not just the usual conspiracy theorists. The strongest condemnation is coming from the people who best know the limitations of computerization: computer scientists.


...snip...

Hart's product is called the eSlate – a small electronic tablet, of sorts, specialized for casting ballots in elections. In the summer of 2002, Travis Co. Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir purchased several hundred eSlates and gave them a successful trial run in the early voting period of the November 2002 elections. The county went whole hog into e-voting in the spring 2003 Austin municipal elections, scrapping its optical scanning system altogether. DeBeauvoir says her choice of eSlate was not simply an attempt to Buy Greater Austin, but that Hart InterCivic's machine has several obvious advantages over its rivals...

cont'd

http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2004-02-20/pols_feature...

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[mac2]

1. What are you doing Democrats to get your vote counted???

When I post important issues they get little attention. Post something about slander or religion and it's got all their attention.

Your vote doesn't count? What are you Democrats doing about it?

Go to Dennis Kucinich's campaign web site and get his form to ask your election people about their voting systems. Send the information in to be reviewed.

[sonias]

2. Link is coming up broken so this is the correct one

Here is a corrected link for the article above
http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2004-02-20/pols_feature.html

I care about this issue and lots of other Democrats are starting to care. DU has been a great resource for discussing the pitfalls of BBV. And yes I commend Dennis for picking up on this issue too.

Here in Travis and in Texas we are working this issue right now. The Texas Coaltion that has formed around this issue is Texas Safe Voting at
http://www.safevoting.org/

In Austin and Travis we have started mailing letters to the precint chairs before the upcoming primaries
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=106x5641

And we encourage all Democrats attending their precinct caucuses to support verifiable voting for the party platform.

Sonia

[Dover]

3. Thanks for those links! Hope you and those in these organizations

will also let the media people, like Lee Nichols, who are actually doing the research and getting the word out, know how important they are to this process of educating people. Many journalists have not been so willing to wade into this complex issue.

[sonias]

4. You are right Dover

Right now, except for the Internet we only have independent media like the Austin Chronicle and Indy media really pounding the payment on this issue. It was the Austin Greens and Austin Democracy Coalition that put together this first forum on BBV voting here in Travis. The Democratic party and the League of Women voters were going to wait until April. We thought we needed action before the primary. Get folks thinking before they cast their ballot in March. And get this issue resolved before the Nov. election.

Sonia

[Dover]

5. Yes. I like the way you think! Why wait?

How are people receiving the e-Slate machines? The article made it sound like the problems it has, which are fewer than many other machines, and which everyone seems to acknowledge still needs improvement, can't be remedied before November.

[fearnobush]

6. Vote Absentee Ballot!!!!!!!

Especially in Ohio, Georga, Nebraska, Maryland, Florida, California, New Jersy, New Mexico to name a few.... Diebold plans to take over... We can put a dent in their plans by Absentee ballots.

<snip>

U.S. Representative Rush Holt introduced HR 2239, The Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2003, that would require electronic voting machines to produce a paper trail so that voters may verify that their screen touches match their actual vote. Election officials would also have a paper trail for recounts.

As Blackwell pressures the Ohio legislature to adopt electronic voting machines without a paper trail, Athan Gibbs wonders, “Why would you buy a voting machine from a company like Diebold which provides a paper trail for every single machine it makes except its voting machines? And then, when you ask it to verify its numbers, it hides behind ‘trade secrets.’”

Maybe the Diebold decision makes sense, if you believe, to paraphrase Henry Kissinger, that democracy is too important to leave up to the votes of the people.

<http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-05.htm>