My local corp.paper: NO to touch-screen voting!

[ithacan]

I was very amazed to find that my local, Gannett corporation-owned local newspaper, in their lead editorial, has come out against black box voting!

some snippets:

State voting overhaul --
Slow down and sweat the details
The Ithaca Journal
September 29, 2003
Editorial

<snip>
The federal government passed the Help America Vote Act of 2002, which would provide aid to states that are working to modernize their balloting processes. In an effort to qualify for that aid, Gov. George Pataki created a special task force that investigated what New York's counties could do to upgrade their balloting processes. The task force wrote a report on its findings and passed it on to the Federal Elections Commission in August. Among the report's suggestions is the conversion of New York's polling places to computerized, touch-screen voting. Unfortunately, that recommendation lacks essential details.
<snip>

An even more glaring gap in the plan is the issue of a paper trail that would enable election officials to verify votes cast in a situation where the electronic system is compromised by malice or by accident.

<snip>

Before going the "high-tech" route, New York ought to look at some highly successful, low technology solutions, such as Oregon's mail-in voting.

<snip>

New York's next-generation voting system must have a verifiable paper trail, be highly resistant to cheating, and include an accurate central database that is secure from tampering and adequately protects voter privacy. Anything less and this state could be setting itself up for an Election Day fiasco such as Florida's.

http://www.theithacajournal.com/news/stories/20030929/opinion/351557.html
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This is a relatively conservative paper in upstate New York; if it's been convinced of these problems, there is hope!

Get the word out. I think the key here was that our local NY State Assembly Rep Barbara Lifton hooked into this problem. So get the word out to your local state reps and to your local papers.

[Bushfire]

1. Great find

:kick:

[Robbien]

2. Each no sale due to lack of paper trail is a win for the good guys

Thanks for posting this

[shirlden]

3. OMG That feels good !!!

Pass this on to all the hard working activist. This will bring a smile to their parched lips.


:toast: Here's to New York

[ithacan]

4. thanks

I'll have to look into how this happened, it is so unusual, so it's important to find out what kinds of arguments work.

My hunch is that a big part is the money, given the budget crunch in NY and other places, does it really make sense to spend millions on an unnecessary technology...

But I think the lack of security and paper trail is a big part too.