You Still Can’t Beat Old Fashioned Human Intuition (or Why Diebold is Screwed)
Who here remembers ‘hanging chads’? Anyone? Show of hands?
The election of 2000 and the uncertainty that followed election day played a great deal in dividing this country. Recounts, court rulings, hanging chads, pregnant chads (who knew guys could be pregnant?) and of course a technology-crazed society (anyone remember 1999?) played into the thrust for electronic voting.
If anyone doubts the premise for electronic voting, let me put that notion to rest. Electronic voting is the best thing for the election process since sliced bread overthrew the “torn bread industry”. Electronic voting, in principle, is accurate, fast and would eliminate the possibility of voter error (Okay, who voted 7,832 times for Jimmy Fallon in Dade County?)
But as so many good ideas that have percolated in government and then gone bad (Show of hands for Social Security? The New Deal? The Patriot Act?), electronic voting was destined for the graveyard.
Until now, I’ve chosen to not get into the problems with the electronic voting machines provided by Diebold. Here is an example of technology gone all wrong. If there is going to be electronic voting, there must be a few things in place that balance the power of technology with the guarantees of the Constitution.
To start, the electronic voting method, whether via Diebold machines, the internet or any number of other options, must produce a verifiable audit trail – that is in the case of tampering, hacking, or machine failure, it must be possible to still get an accurate tally, without compromising the concept of a secret ballot.
The machines themselves must be secure. A Princeton University video last week demonstrated tampering with a machine in under a minute. It take 3 minutes to vote. No one would even notice if an operative tampered with the vote count, because there is no audit trail.
This morning, Maryland Governor Bob Ehrlich is holding out the possibility that he might call the Legislature back to session before the election. The reason? Maryland’s September 12 Primary was riddled by problems, some very big problems, arising from the use of the Diebold machines. To protect democracy, these problems can’t happen on the General Election a little more than a month from now. Ehrlich wants the Legislature to pass a law allowing voters to fall back on paper ballots, a suggestion that has merit but probably can’t be accomplished on such short notice.
In other words, the 2006 General Election will always have an asterix next to it in the history books, because we’ll never know what the true outcomes will be.
Pick up your copy of the WordPress Bible, a wildly popular resource for beginners and experts alike.
Written by Aaron Brazell on September 21, 2006
Popularity: 1% [?]
Aaron Brazell
Steven Fisher
Ray Capece
Carlos Granier-Phelps
Andrew Feinberg
Mike Dougherty
Chris Bachmann
Leslie Poston
Jerald Sheets
Scott Goldblatt
Mykel Nahorniak
Peter Corbett
Jonathan Dingman
Geoff Livingston
Jeremy Toeman
Rachel James
Chris Parandian
Warren Sukernek
Joseph Hauckes
Shana Glickfield
Vinnie Garcia
David Nick
Duncan Riley
Carol Ott
Darren McLaughlin
Mike Oliver
Rico Masterson
Lou P. Nuts
A billion dollars? LOL, for what?
A billion dollars? LOL, for what?
Whoa, I posted in the wrong post :) Sorry.
Whoa, I posted in the wrong post :) Sorry.
In my voting district, the big complaint was regarding the lack of privacy. Apparently voting was done out in the open with people walking by — which I always assumed to be a big no-no.
As a side note, I’m being spammed by someone from Diebold who wants to bring a video and give a talk to our neighborhood association about their new machines “before the upcoming September election”. The election was two weeks ago — I’d say he needs a new schtick.
In my voting district, the big complaint was regarding the lack of privacy. Apparently voting was done out in the open with people walking by — which I always assumed to be a big no-no.
As a side note, I’m being spammed by someone from Diebold who wants to bring a video and give a talk to our neighborhood association about their new machines “before the upcoming September election”. The election was two weeks ago — I’d say he needs a new schtick.
You’re correct about the audit trail Aaron. Electronic voting is sooooo feasible, that I suspect the only reason why it hasn’t been widely adapted over there is because some parties are actively trying to block it, because then it’ll be harder to manipulate the vote. meh.
You’re correct about the audit trail Aaron. Electronic voting is sooooo feasible, that I suspect the only reason why it hasn’t been widely adapted over there is because some parties are actively trying to block it, because then it’ll be harder to manipulate the vote. meh.