The Warring States of NPF - The problems with electronic voting...

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The problems with electronic voting...

Those of you who posted on the last board know that since Hightower has been talking about it, I've become more and more wary of the future of electronic voting. I mean, 57 problems?

And its open to not only being hacked, corrupted by owners & developers, but as it stands has no paper trail whatsoever.

Anyway, I'll have you read the article yourselves, and make your own opinions, and hopefully you'll click on the www.verifiedvoting.org link after you understand what's happening...

SWB

Quote:

STOPPING COMPUTERIZED-VOTING FRAUD
12/23/2003

There's bad news and good news on the electronic voting machine front.

Let's get the bad news out of the way first: Yet another study has found that these touchscreen machines are loaded with security flaws that open our elections to fraudulent manipulation, either by the owners and programmers of the machines, or by partisan hackers. The State of Ohio commissioned a study of the vote-tallying computers of the four biggest corporations in this new and rapidly expanding industry, and the researchers found not two or three problems � but 57!

Among the little hiccups was the discovery that the computers could be tricked to count the votes of any particular machine many times over, thus perverting the election. Another found that outsiders could hack into the system on election day and close down selected machines � people would still be voting on these machines but their votes would not get counted.

Ready for a little good news now? Let's hear it for California's secretary of state, Kevin Shelley. Based on the findings of a public task force, he has now decided that all electronic voting machines used in his state must print out a paper receipt, verifying the ballot of every voter and creating a paper trail that election officials can review if a recount is called. Instead of having to trust the manipulative world of corporate-owned cyberspace, Californians will have their votes counted in real space.

The only hickey on Shelley's decision is that he postpones implementation to the 2006 election. Why not '04, WHEN WE'RE ELECTING A PRESIDENT? The paper technology already exists, so let's do it now! Still his move is a huge step toward voting integrity, and other states will likely follow suit.

Meanwhile, the national bill to require a paper trail by next year's election, H.R. 2239, now has 82 cosponsors, including three top Republicans. To help pass it, contact this website: www.verifiedvoting.org.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Ohio Study Finds Flaws in Electronic Voting," New York Times, December 3, 2003.
"E-votes Must Leave Paper Trail," Wired, November 21, 2003.
http://wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,6...n=wn_tophead_1

I think, at some point, we'll have to move to an electronic voting system. I definitely agree that it needs to print out a paper ballot to ensure that votes are counted the way people want them to be counted, but at some point we'll need to move to something more reliable than punch cards and "multiple choice test" ballots.

Actually, if you've been paying attention, the move to electronic voting is already taking place. By 2004, at least in major populace areas (like Florida), it'll become the way to replace dated punchcard voting systems.

Personally, I'm not too keen the way things seem to be going, as its far too open corrupted influences (from those making the systems, and hackers who can potentially get it).

Sky Warrior Bob

Well, like I said, I agree that there needs to be a paper backup of each vote, if for no other reason than that the power could go out before the election is over and a paper backup would prevent the need for a new election (although preventing election fraud is a much more compelling reason). If your election commission is using electronic voting machines without providing a paper backup of each vote, file a complaint.

Good God, just hire skilled hackers to design the security systems. And tell them that if they leave any back doors, they'll get axed, after being fired.

is there any reason for them to be online and exposed to hackers to begin with?

They wouldn't need to be online to be hacked, really. I assume you would still be alone with the machine while voting... and if they're a computer, and a hacker goes to 'vote' they could get access. On the bright side, most hackers are all about freedom of information and therefore most likely don't like the Bush administration after the patriot act.

I'm wondering what the gain is, though? They already have machines count the votes, and I don't see how this will reduce error margins. It's not that much harder to make a check or punch a hole than it is to push a button.

It's not like our votes matter in the Preseidential election anyway...

Political annoyances aside, electronic voting is the future. Why? Cuz Technology Bob says so. There's no way around it, but that paper trail is a good idea.

And yet...even that can be manipulated by the hackers. And If were even remotely capable of hacking, I would SO try to mess with the data. That kinda stuff is appealing to people.

We have to go into this with both eyes open...

no matter how you vote it's always eligible for tainting anyway, there's just no full proof way of doing it. the way i see it is that since that's the case we may as well do it with the electronic process where it's effecient anyway

Quote:

On the bright side, most hackers are all about freedom of information and therefore most likely don't like the Bush administration after the patriot act.

So the bright side is that at least my vote wont count because some hackers and "internet guys" know better. Thanks g-u-y.