Election 2004

Electonic Voting

This entry was posted in Democracy Election 2004 Technology US Politics on by

Ken MacLeod doesn’t have a high opinion of unverifiable touchscreen voting:

Touchscreen voting with no verifiable paper trail is to real voting what McJobs are to real jobs. You don’t have votes, you have McVotes.
This is something that you wouldn’t put in a science fiction novel, unless it was a blatant knock-about satire – you know, some squib about a world where Mickey Mouse runs for Governor of Florida, or Arnold Schwartznegger for Governor of California. It’s too unbelievable. A good editor would call it a plot hole.

You shouldn’t either.

Late Night Reading

This entry was posted in Blogging Election 2004 on by

Body and Soul has a nice set of references on electronic voting. If you are not already up in arms about the issues surrounding the current generation of electonic voting machines you should be.
Felix Salmon writes long and well on how often and when should a blogger post to maximize readership.
Is there an academic bias against conservatives? The Invisible Adjunct tosses a post in the ring of discussion and has links to many other responses to this David Brooks op-ed piece (registration required and may go to pay archives soon).
Good Night!

Is Your Vote Being Counted?

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The 9th Circuit Court is concerned about punch card voting machines. Perhaps, though, they should be more concerned about the electonic voting machines which in their current incarnation have an even greater risk of disenfranchising voters.
EFF has a lot to say on this issue and is particularly harsh on the normally staid IEEE which has been charged with developing voting machine standards. However, the work they have done to day appears to be design oriented rather then performance oriented. The EFF reports that:

Members of the security community report that the current standard is flawed. P1583 is largely a design standard, describing how to configure current electronic voting machines, instead of a performance standard setting benchmarks and processes for testing the security, reliability, accessibility, and accuracy of these machines.

Of course, if you don’t vote or don’t care about the results matching what the voters wanted then go back to sleep.
Charles Stross lists three minimal requirements for an electronic voting system:

1) It must print a paper record of the vote cast, which the voter must be able to see, and which must be retained, and which can be reconciled with the electronic record of the vote.
2) The software used must be open to third-party auditors, to the extent that it can be verified and if necessarily formally proven to be above suspicion. (Translation: only open source need apply.)
3) The hardware used must be open to third-party auditors, preferably conform verifiably to off-the-shelf standards, and may be challenged and replaced by the election commission with equivalent off-the-shelf equipment (to ensure that no sneaky hardware back doors are installed).

Number 2 needs a little tuning up to say something like 3rd party auditors must verify that the software accurately tallies the vote as entered by the voter. Make sure your local systems adhere to these.

Where is America Headed?

This entry was posted in bush Constitution Drug Laws Election 2004 Patriot Act US Politics on by

As a follow up to last night’s Late Night Reading take a look at Doug Giebel’s article Ending America as We Know It which opens:

The neo-conservative Bush Administration “plan” to remake our American nation intends to alter forever the relationship between government, business and the people.

In the summation to his arguments Giebel asserts:

Americans are being played for suckers by a carnival of macho scam artists, the likes of which this nation has never before experienced.

You read it, you judge.
Via Talkleft.