Is Voting Ready To Go Digital?

If I look into the future of what our kids will use to vote when they are adults, I see computerized voting. I mean, come on, everything else is going digital - why not voting? The good news is that e-voting is here. The bad news is that it seems to have some glitches.

Techmeme linked to a New York Times article by Clive Thompson titled "Can You Count On These Machines?". I posted about my positive experience last year using eSlate on the Silicon Valley Moms Blog. My blogger buddy Sarah Granger also posted on the E-Voting Dilmena. Her post mentioned the Verified Voting Foundation. When I took a visit to that site, I saw them state that electronic miscounts are not theory - but fact. That site also had a link to an article by the NC Charlotte Observer titled  "NC: Paper trail on voting devices a bumpy road".

Ok, I get it - with electronic voting there can be lost counts. But what about the famous dimple, chad and butterfly ballot debacle of Election 2000? It seems paper voting has it's own set of problems. In my past life I was in system auditing so my two cents are to make sure there is an audit trail - in paper and digital. Sarah's post mentioned that some e-voting machines have the option to verify your vote with a paper audit trail - but it is up to the voter to request.

So voters, don't be afraid to join the digital age with e-voting but do your part and ask if there is a way to verify your vote with paper.

Comments

[Al]

You said "It seems paper voting has it's own set of problems." Man, the problems are huge.

First, it's party people who run the elections. I'm from Chicago and the problems are huge and have been huge for many years. The reason they call it a Democratic Machine isn't about efficiency, it's about manufacturing votes - whether by absentee or just by virtue of precinct control. In some precincts, the Democrats would have a Democrat run as the Republican captain. Since the Republicans don't have much organization in those areas, they don't know these people. So a Dem claims he's a Republican and then it's just Democrats running the precinct.
(And to say the Republicans don't do this is naive, but we all know the big votes are in the urban areas - which are all heavily controlled by Democrats.)
Do a lookup in Google on the words Acorn and voting and you'll see all sorts of stories on Democratic fraud. (Acorn is a group that helps out with voting, but it's very corrupt.)

Why do you think the Democrats fight tooth and nail against the requirement for people to show ID's? It's just another way for them to continue to get away with committing fraud and screwing us all.

And why did Gore pick Bill Daley to head up the voting in Florida in 2000? Most everyone knows the Daley's have been experts at running a Machine and knowing all of the tricks to manufacture new votes for themselves and to discredit their opponents votes. Remember, Daley only wanted to work in highly Democratic areas. His excuse was people were disenfranchised, but it's the Democrats who run things in those areas! As you can see, it's not about getting to the truth; it's about manufacturing new votes. The media went along with it because they are mostly liberal and this type of fraud is hard to report on with all of the political yelling going on that provides a smokescreen and cover.

As Stalin said "It's not who votes that counts, it's who counts the votes."
I don't know the answers, but having the party people run the elections and do the counting isn't right.

[Sarah Granger]

Thanks for the link. What's also scary is that we're not even safe with paper ballots still. There are always errors, even with low tech. And don't even get me started on some of the slimy tactics used to keep certain polling places from serving all of their voters. It's sad that the seat of modern democracy, the country that so many other countries look to for leadership in the electoral process, is so corrupt, convoluted, and full of holes.