E-voting: In favor
“While there is potential for fraud with electronic voting, it is
increasingly the better option for society. All in all, electronic
voting improves the voting experience - especially for many
citizens who simply could not vote in the past. Moreover, the
transition to e-voting is natural: with the rise of digital
technology, paper ballots are increasingly antiquated. Most
important, this technology is not only effective; it is safe! The
challenge, therefore, is to provide reasonable safeguards so
that voters may rest assured that their vote will count."
D.R.E = Direct Recording Electronics
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DRE machines are different from other electronic voting machines which have
electronic interfaces but do not record data electronically.
The electronic voting machine is activated by a device called a Ballot Activator
Cartridge (BAC). The BAC is inserted into the BAC slot located right beside the
electronic screen by a poll worker so that the voter votes no more than once.
At the end of an election, the electronic voting machine is closed with a
supervisor password. During the process, summary vote data from the machine
is transmitted to the BAC as well as to a compact flashdrive.
A printer pack may be used to print the resulting summary data, or it may be
transmitted via a built-in modem. The BAC, any printed data, and the compact
flashcard are finally brought to a central location for tabulation, where an
electronic vote tabulator calculates the results.
source: http://www.thetartan.org/2006/11/6/scitech/htw (Carnegie Mellon University)
To keep in mind
The vast majority of voting systems used in US elections already rely on
computers in some way – DRE has been around since the early 1990s.
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The use of DREs steadily continues rise; the federal ‘Help America Vote Act’
(2002) expressly promotes their use.
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Currently, there is still more work to do in implementing standards to regulate
the various versions of software employed in the operation of DREs.
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There has not been an election formally reported in court wherein DRE
technology has been declared to have seriously compromised the outcome.
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According to Congress: “it is NOT clear whether the unique security problems
posed by DREs are best addressed by requiring that they produce paper ballots
or by other means”.
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According to the same report, it would be premature to disqualify e-voting
without allowing for further innovation and perfections within the scientific
community.
source: The DRE Controversy: FAQs and Misperceptions, The Congressional
Research Service (Library Of Congress)
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Apart from e-voting…
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In the 2000 Presidential election, there were issues surrounding paper ballots many people in Miami voted who were not registered or who we deceased.
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"Even Dead People Voted in Miami". NewsMax.com (Dec. 25, 2000)
"The technological transformation now under way in polling places has its roots
back in 2000. That's when the close and pivotal presidential vote in Florida
focused national attention on voting-system flaws. Those flaws included
technological ones; confusing ballot layouts and balky punch card ballots
(remember "butterfly ballots" and "hanging chads") that made many voters'
intentions uncertain.“
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Weiss, Peter. "Ballot Roulette". Science News, Vol. 170, No. 19. (Nov. 4, 2006)
In short, DREs are not to blame, but rather corruption of political machines,
as well as people not knowing proper ballot procedure.
… from the voter’s perspective
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A key advantage of DRE technology is its adaptability for disabled and nonEnglish speaking voters.
“Most DREs now are equipped with a headphone jack and some kind of tactually
differentiated keypad for use by the visually impaired. A voter using this
interface plugs a standard set of headphones into the machine and either a
recorded or synthesized voice guides him or her through the ballot. Audio
interfaces can also be programmed to speak in different languages, thus making
them beneficial to any voters who cannot read English.”
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Christopher S. Danielsen, editor of Voice of the Nation's Blind
With paper ballots, numbers of how many were needed in each language
needed to be predetermined. In the end there was either a waste of ballots or a
last minute rush to find extra in a particular language which inevitably
discouraged citizens trying to vote.
Electronic voting machines help to eliminate the feelings of second class
citizenship for disabled and non English speaking voters
“Once it had been demonstrated that a DRE could be made accessible to voters
with disabilities, language requiring that at least one such machine be installed
at each polling place using federal funds to upgrade its voting equipment was
included in the Help America Vote Act.”
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Matt Zimmerman staff attorney, Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Safety & Safeguards
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Electronic Voting systems have flaws BUT they can be fixed
Possible Improvements
 Voter Verified Paper Trial (VVPT)
 Perform routine audits
 Ban wireless components
 Perform tests on random machines on election day
 Test for fraudulent code or hardware
What the Experts say
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“If there is no external communications pathway, then there is no risk of gaining
unauthorized entry into the tabulation system…It is [also] possible to detect
attempts to enter a modem line.”
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“Concerns about security of the collection and counting process have always
been important. Computers offer the first technology that can easily make
copies of information in different forms for archival preservation. Electronic
voting machines of today keep records of the votes on disk, removable physical
media in memories and, as a final count, on a paper scroll. These multiple
records can improve voting machines’ immunity to problems.”
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Dana DeBeauvoir, Elections Administrator and County Clerk Travis County, TX
Ted Selker PhD., Director Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project
“Voting system software is engineered months advance of actual elections,
making it very unlikely for programmers to know who candidates will be and
impossible to know how their names will appear on ballots. The source code is
held in escrow by various state and federal officials, and local officials do not
have access to it, thus preventing code changes at the local level.”
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Election Technology Council
The Future
E-voting is essentially inevitable as we progress in an
increasingly digital era. All new technology is bound
to have some glitches. Rather than resorting to an
outdated system, our energies should be focused on
improving one that will subsequently provide multiple
benefits for both voters and election officials alike!