Computers, voting machines, paper ballots - Preferences?

[BrAinPaiNt]

Originally Posted by CowboyJeff

I’ve said for years we need a 2-tier system for voting that includes both electronic and paper ballots (not punch cards). It could work like this: the voter votes on the paper ballot in the voting booth. His/her vote is confirmed by the computer. The computer votes are tallied immediately. The paper ballots are then counted which is a longer process (no paper ballots are discounted unless they are completely blank – there should be no errors on the paper ballots because they are confirmed and entered electronically by an independent poll worker). The voter is issued an electronic receipt with his/her voting results that he/she is required to keep. If the discrepancy between the results of the paper ballots and electronic ballots is greater than a specific percentile, the issued electronic receipts are then used as a tie-breaker.

Hmm...so are you talking like filling out the paper card. Then basically putting it into the computer like you would put a dollar bill into a coke machine. It would hold the dollar bill for you but at the same time scan the card and collect that data. Transfer that data to a database that can be counted while being coded with something that says which machine collected that information.

From there the actually paper ballots are removed from the computer and sent to a headquarters somewhere to be backup insurance for the computer count.

[iceberg]

Originally Posted by ABQCOWBOY

E-mail is a bad idea. To easy to hack. It's also never a good idea to tie e-mail to you SSN. Just bad all the way around. You start dealing with the problem of scrubbing your old hard drives and that's an issue all it's own. Never mind keeping your own personel computer safe. Band with is also an issue. We don't currently have enough of it in this country to support our entire poplulation if accessing it at relatively the same time.

i don't mean "voting" by e-mail. you'd log into a secure site and you'd need a SSN to vote. once you voted you'd be sent a notice to e and snail mail that you did vote. if you "didn't" then let them know.

a lot to work out but sooner or later things will change. it always does.

[ABQCOWBOY]

Originally Posted by iceberg

i don't mean "voting" by e-mail. you'd log into a secure site and you'd need a SSN to vote. once you voted you'd be sent a notice to e and snail mail that you did vote. if you "didn't" then let them know.

a lot to work out but sooner or later things will change. it always does.

Electronic transfer of SSN is a bad deal, regardless IMO. Unfortunatly, pretty much anything can be hacked and then, even after the election is done, you have the problem of securing that information for pretty much forever. Thats a very big responsability. Heck, the SSA was hacked less then a year ago. That's not widely known but it happens. Pick an agency and other then classifed sites, I can show you a government owned database that has been hacked.

[CowboyJeff]

Originally Posted by BrAinPaiNt

Hmm...so are you talking like filling out the paper card. Then basically putting it into the computer like you would put a dollar bill into a coke machine. It would hold the dollar bill for you but at the same time scan the card and collect that data. Transfer that data to a database that can be counted while being coded with something that says which machine collected that information.

From there the actually paper ballots are removed from the computer and sent to a headquarters somewhere to be backup insurance for the computer count.

kinda sorta. The filled out paper card could be hand-entered by a poll worker (not scanned like a dollar bill). The printed electronic receipt ensures the poll worker who electronically entered your paper ballot didnt cheat you (you check their work). This is just an idea I've had, but nothing is infallible. Something will always get hacked at somepoint.

[notherbob]

In my county, in the last election, every voter was required to vote on a computer or not vote at all - there were no paper ballots at the polling places. I chose not to vote rather than to vote on a computer whose programming was suspect in my estimation. I know just enough about computers and corrupt politicians and political parties to doubt the integrity of a company that makes and programs the computers and also supports one of the political parties.

I have figured out how to beat that, though, next election I am going to vote absentee where they have to give you a paper ballot. Others may feel OK about voting on a computer - I don't. I have no confidence at all that my votes would be counted as cast, but rather the way the computer was programmed to count them by the programmer, whatever he/she had in mind when generating the code - that's the way computers work. Who checks their work? Why, someone from the same company, of course.

Just my opinion.