The election yesterday was my third experience with the new-improved voting machines. And for the third time, I walked out of the booth wondering if my vote would really be counted.
After tapping my choices with a stylus -not really that easy for a left-handed-choice-tapper on a right-handed machine, I had to re-do a lot of them- I pressed the vote button. And the screen flashed something like "vote recorded" and then it went blank.
There was nothing to drop in a ballot box, nothing to show me that the machine was really hooked to anything, and of course, nothing that anybody could re-count if there was a question of fraud.
The friendly octogenarian on duty assured my that the it was all run by computer and that we didn't need a paper trail, since they could recount the computer records if they needed to do a recount. And since it is impossible for hard drives to die and memory chips to fail...
Yeah, it probably worked this time but the empty feeling I had as I walked out of the polling station left me strangly envious of those days when I could look at my punch card to make sure that none of the chads were hanging.
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
I voted by paper ballot that was then optically scanned. I feel very secure about it.
Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :
Yes, many of the systems for electronic voting are hideously insecure, and no computer professional I know of trusts most such systems. For more information, I suggest the blackbox voting website.
There are some systems for computer voting that seem reasonably workable, but the biggest question remains, why go to a system that will undoubtedly have unforeseen bugs, instead of going with something more tried and true, like simple paper ballots (note: not complex paper ballots with weird lines. Simple, well laid out paper ballots).
Posted by jeniwren (Member # 2002) on :
I can't really understand why they didn't use a combination of computer and paper. Sort of like airlines use. You go in and check in with a touch screen, identifying yourself using a major credit card. They find your record, give you some options, and spit out your paper ticket.
I could see a system where touch screens are used, but a paper ticket is printed to show the choices that were made. The user is asked to review the printed ballot for accuracy and then confirm it by pressing the OK button on the screen. A NO confirmation would ask the user to rip up the paper ballot in their hand, and send them back through the touch screens again to correct their mistake. The ballot is then sent electronically, but the paper ballot is secured and dropped in a ballot box. Ballot envelopes with more than one ballot inside automatically nulls the vote. The paper ballots are collected and read electronically to confirm what the initial electronic count was by precinct. This would yield a margin of error that could be reconciled.
Seems to me that this is not that difficult, and don't really understand why it's such a problem.
Posted by Melponome (Member # 6987) on :
I voted touchscreen, and I think I set off a "yellow light", or something.
I live in California, so my ticket is split (Town Clown vs. County Clown vs. District Clown, etc.)
So, at the end of my list, a warning comes up that I "haven't made all of my choices", and the option to review appeared.
I checked TWICE: YES, I thought of the children, etc. There was NO errors, and I submitted.
It doesn't sound like much, but with people getting the RAZZ voting straight down their party, it made me wonder....
Posted by MEC (Member # 2968) on :
quote: The election yesterday was my third experience with the new-improved voting machines. And for the third time, I walked out of the booth wondering if my vote would really be counted.
You voted three times???
Posted by kaioshin00 (Member # 3740) on :
quote: After tapping my choices with a stylus -not really that easy for a left-handed-choice-tapper on a right-handed machine, I had to re-do a lot of them- I pressed the vote button.
The touch screens were right handed? Posted by Teshi (Member # 5024) on :
Wouldn't it be just as simple for the machines to spew out a reciept or something?
Posted by Tatiana (Member # 6776) on :
Have you seen the Lefty guitar strings? They are guitar strings made for left handed guitarists! They rock!
![[Confused]](confused.gif)