Get Out the Vote
Well, its time to mouth off about this electronic voting thing. First and foremost, electronic voting will be the way of the future. So, get over it. Personally, I look forward to being able to vote from the comfort of my own living room. We aren't there yet.
The current issue, as I understand it, has to do with mostly liberal (I hate that moniker but that's another blog) suspicion of the process as a direct result of the last presidential election. It wasn't just hanging chads, it was a lot of things and, of course, the process itself that was questionable. If you were on the winning side, congratulations, you probably aren't worried..until of course, your candidate loses. Then there will be bloody hell to pay so, remember the Alamo, so to speak. What goes around comes around.
Now that I go that off my chest...The real issues here are: the accuracy in the count and; fairness in access to the vote by all constituents. The media has reported lately on some perceived tampering, especially in Florida, with minority voters. I guess I would wonder just how effective such tactics could be in a national election but then, I'm a survivor of the last election and, there is also that sticky issue of the electoral colleges. Again, that's another rant.
The issue of voting accuracy is an altogether different problem. I have a fairly decent technical background which tells me that if, someone can write a virus or worm that affects every Micro Soft operating system on the planet, then someone can always tamper with the data. The idea of electronic voting is to eliminate, or reduce to a very small number, the error in reporting the results by eliminating most of the human element involved. A side benefit is perhaps, some day, the convenience of voting from your living room. We upload our taxes electronically today and I haven't heard one complaint about it. But then, there's feedback involved. You get a check...or you get audited. There's at least some acknowledgement or feedback even in the IRS system. This brings me to the solution to the voting issue. You have to have feedback of some sort. Feedback will provide some comfort to the voter that the machine recorded what they actually voted for. I want to underscore one very important point: This will not guarantee that the electronic data will not be tampered with! That's another problem entirely.
Voting systems need to print out a voting receipt, the voter needs to sign it and the confirmation needs to be put in a ballot box. There should be an audit committee that does a statistical audit on the paper ballots relative to the electronically recorded ballots and their findings published before an outcome is ever declared. So, there you have it. The almost perfect solution. It makes the voter feel good (feedback), provides a check for shady politicians (audit process) and doesn't eliminate any jobs (just turns people into auditors). Oh, and if you want to further reduce the chance that someone will screw with the system, use Apple products...only 4% of the computer using population even has a chance of knowing how to tamper with them. Its OK Steve, you don't have to pay me for this ;-)
The current issue, as I understand it, has to do with mostly liberal (I hate that moniker but that's another blog) suspicion of the process as a direct result of the last presidential election. It wasn't just hanging chads, it was a lot of things and, of course, the process itself that was questionable. If you were on the winning side, congratulations, you probably aren't worried..until of course, your candidate loses. Then there will be bloody hell to pay so, remember the Alamo, so to speak. What goes around comes around.
Now that I go that off my chest...The real issues here are: the accuracy in the count and; fairness in access to the vote by all constituents. The media has reported lately on some perceived tampering, especially in Florida, with minority voters. I guess I would wonder just how effective such tactics could be in a national election but then, I'm a survivor of the last election and, there is also that sticky issue of the electoral colleges. Again, that's another rant.
The issue of voting accuracy is an altogether different problem. I have a fairly decent technical background which tells me that if, someone can write a virus or worm that affects every Micro Soft operating system on the planet, then someone can always tamper with the data. The idea of electronic voting is to eliminate, or reduce to a very small number, the error in reporting the results by eliminating most of the human element involved. A side benefit is perhaps, some day, the convenience of voting from your living room. We upload our taxes electronically today and I haven't heard one complaint about it. But then, there's feedback involved. You get a check...or you get audited. There's at least some acknowledgement or feedback even in the IRS system. This brings me to the solution to the voting issue. You have to have feedback of some sort. Feedback will provide some comfort to the voter that the machine recorded what they actually voted for. I want to underscore one very important point: This will not guarantee that the electronic data will not be tampered with! That's another problem entirely.
Voting systems need to print out a voting receipt, the voter needs to sign it and the confirmation needs to be put in a ballot box. There should be an audit committee that does a statistical audit on the paper ballots relative to the electronically recorded ballots and their findings published before an outcome is ever declared. So, there you have it. The almost perfect solution. It makes the voter feel good (feedback), provides a check for shady politicians (audit process) and doesn't eliminate any jobs (just turns people into auditors). Oh, and if you want to further reduce the chance that someone will screw with the system, use Apple products...only 4% of the computer using population even has a chance of knowing how to tamper with them. Its OK Steve, you don't have to pay me for this ;-)
posted by Politico at 10:10 AM
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