BBV: why we should just stick with paper

[eridani]

(except for accomodations for disabled people), and with all due respect for the talented open source people out there.

1. A computerized vote is a mediated vote, for everyone except the handful that can understand the code. You don't vote. The code does. The mediator might be a good guy, like the open source programmer or the trustworthy friend of a blind person, or s/he might be a scumbag like a Diebold closed source programmer or someone who deliberately betrays the blind voter, but it's still mediation.

2. Any complex system, whether abstract code or regular physical material, has unforseen bugs. You never eliminate problems in complex systems--you only reduce them to a tolerable level so that the system is robust and useful most of the time. Telephone exchange and bank account software systems are banged against the real world millions of times a day, 24/7. We vote once or twice a year. If we only drove our cars once a year and no more often, they'd suck just as badly as voting machines.

[NMDemDist2]

1. and complex systems have backup systems

usually several of them in case the "primary" systems get hosed

[Andy_Stephenson]

2. I agree.paper says it best.

Some things should not be left to chance. Voting is one of those things. Thanks for the post eridani.

[radfringe]

3. "tongue-in-cheek" suggestion

we should use rocks

here how it works: everyone gets a 1/4-lb rock. On a table are boxes with candidate's names. You drop your rock into the box for which ever candidate you want to vote for.

The boxes are then weighed. Whoever's box weighs the most at the end of the voting period - wins. This give a literal meaning to "the weight of the vote"

the boxes are then placed in storage. If at anytime the polls show the now installed official is "failing" - the boxes are taken out of storage, and voters are allowed to remove their rock and throw it at the now installed official.

the boxes are then weighed again -- this number then becomes the basis for a "stone poll" as opposed to a "straw poll"

[Cheswick2.0]

4. I hear they do it that way in canada

is that true? They vote on paper ballots and they get the results just as quickly as we do.

[Andy_Stephenson]

5. They do...however there are significant

differences. The electiuons have far fewer ballot issues. But still for my money...paper is still the best.

[Sirveri]

6. Box voting COULD work.

All they need to do is spit out a scan tron that clearly reads your selections, turn that in, badda bing badda boom, you're DONE. But no, that would be TOO simple.

[Andy_Stephenson]

7. Combined with robust auditing

and you might be on to something.