Paper Vote Canada

Paper has become a big issue in the controversy over electronic voting machines. So activists in 19 states dumped a lot of it on election officials Tuesday as they delivered petitions bearing 350,000 signatures asking officials to mandate voter-verified paper audit trails for touch-screen voting machines in their states.

The Computer Ate My Vote campaign, led by MoveOn, TrueMajority and six other organizations, urged secretaries of state to follow California's lead and adopt measures for improving the integrity of elections this November. They also wanted to rally support for federal legislation that would require a paper trail on voting machines nationwide, which has been stalled in Congress for more than a year.

[permanent link] posted by rakerman : 10:21 pm (0) comments /

Participants in "the Computer Ate My Vote" campaign said paperless voting systems are poorly programmed and prone to hackers, fraud and software bugs.

[permanent link] posted by rakerman : 4:23 pm (0) comments /

San Bernardino and Riverside counties, like O.C., will offer paper ballots as an option.

[permanent link] posted by rakerman : 7:49 am (0) comments /

Despite an electronic voting fiasco in 2000 and the furor over e-voting in the United States, Venezuela is using untested touchscreen computers for its recall referendum on Hugo Chavez's presidency.

Critics fear touchscreen voting machines in the August 15 vote could fail spectacularly

[permanent link] posted by rakerman : 2:43 pm (0) comments /

I thought Aparita Bhandari's article presented a very good overview of the Canadian electronic voting situation and the issues associated with electronic voting.

Voting is at the core of our democratic process. It is critical that our voting procedures be completely transparent. Our system of paper ballots that are hand-counted in the presence of scrutineers is simple, yet provides rapid and verifiable results.

The key is not to assume that new technology is somehow inherently better. The key is "appropriate technology." For voting, paper and pen in public is the correct combination of technologies.

In Ireland, problems with voting machines were so severe that country shelved its plans for e-voting for the time being. In California, there is a huge legal fight to try to at least provide a paper trail from the electronic voting machines.

It is a bit ridiculous to create elaborate (and expensive) electronic voting machines, and then to have to retrofit paper audit trails onto them. In Canada we already have a paper-based system that works extremely well.

If we want to increase voter participation, one approach would be to have mandatory voting as in Australia, another would be simply to find more ways to engage apathetic voters.

[permanent link] posted by rakerman : 6:29 am (0) comments /

Cast your vote online

Surely the ultimate demonstration of e-government in action would be elections held electronically and online. Already voters in Belgium and Switzerland can vote from the comfort of their own homes, so how is the UK gearing up for e-voting?

To date, e-voting has been used only in council elections in the UK. In 2003, 17 local authorities provided e-voting facilities to 1.9 million voters, via internet kiosks, home PCs, text messaging and digital TV.

But the results were not encouraging, with only a marginal increase in voter numbers. Furthermore, technology think-tank the Foundation for Information Policy Research (FIPR) is far from convinced of the advisability of using these voting systems nationwide.

One of the leading concerns with e-voting is the lack of a paper trail, which allows you to go back and check the outcome of an election after the event. The FIPR warned that it would be impossible to prove afterwards that an election had been carried out correctly if a situation such as the need for a recount occurred.

To further underline how far we are from voting online in the next general election, the Electoral Commission advised the government against trialling e-voting in some areas for the June elections to the European Parliament, citing concerns over security and software development.

[permanent link] posted by rakerman : 7:14 am (0) comments /

I thought Aparita Bhandari's article "Is the future in line or online?" presented a very good overview of the Canadian electronic voting situation and the issues associated with electronic voting.

Voting is at the core of our democratic process. It is critical that our voting procedures be completely transparent. Our system of paper ballots that are hand-counted in the presence of scrutineers is simple, yet provides rapid and verifiable results.

The key is not to assume that new technology is somehow inherently better. The key is *appropriate technology*. For voting, paper and pen in public is the correct combination of technologies.

I have been monitoring the worldwide news about voting machines on my weblog, Paper Vote Canada, http://blog.papervotecanada.ca/ and again and again I have seen reports of problems. In Ireland, the issues raised were so severe that they shelved their plans for e-voting for the time being. In California, there is a huge legal fight to try to at least provide a paper trail from the electronic voting machines.

It is a bit ridiculous to create elaborate (and expensive) electronic voting machines, and then to have to retrofit paper audit trails onto them. In Canada we already have a paper-based system that works extremely well.

If we want to increase voter participation, one approach would be to have mandatory voting as in Australia, another would be simply to find more ways to engage apathetic voters.

[permanent link] posted by rakerman : 12:52 am (0) comments /

It took just one click. No paper ballots were used during last year's municipal and school board elections in 12 area municipalities of Eastern Ontario, in the counties of Prescott-Russell and Stormont Dundas and Glengarry. Instead, close to 100,000 voters were registered to vote either by telephone or to vote online, using the services of CanVote Inc., a company based in L'Orignal, Ont.

...

Although most electronic voting advocates would like to see paper ballot voting as a thing of the past, there's a fair amount of debate over the subject.

The recent federal election was conducted the old-fashioned way: Voters drove up to polling stations and marked an X on a paper ballot. The ballots were counted and, before the end of the night, a Liberal minority was declared.

But electronic voting advocates say the voting process will soon catch up with technology.

...

However, those opposed to electronic voting argue that voting cannot be compared with other gains made on the online scene, such as Internet banking. It's too important a civic duty, an entirely private and anonymous process, which stands to be compromised by technological innovations, they say.

...

[CanVote company president Joe Church says] "The issue of recount just doesn't exist. In paper ballots, judgment calls have to be made when someone initials a ballot or marks it sloppily. But in online voting, you can't physically click more than allotted choices. You're asked to confirm your choice."

In Canada, election bodies such as Elections Canada have yet to give the go-ahead to electronic voting. A study commissioned by the agency in 1998 posits its stance on the issue, says spokesperson Hal Doran.

According to the study, "electronic voting is a next natural step in the introduction and application of new technologies to the electoral process." But, "for the foreseeable future, the act of voting will continue to be carried out by hand, at a polling station in a school or church hall, in a manner that is easily recognizable."

...

"The way we operate right now isn't perfect, but at least we knew about the (hanging chad) and we could haggle over what happened because we could see the ballots," says [Bob McDermott, associate professor of political science at York University]. "It was open and accountable. But online voting isn't open to our scrutiny. Do we take this private company's word that there was no vote tampering?

"And if you really want (to increase voter turnout), you want young voters to participate, make policies that will appeal to them. Give them a reason to vote."

[permanent link] posted by rakerman : 12:11 am (0) comments /

A noon rally on Tuesday [July 13, 2004] at the Statehouse is one of 17 nationwide to protest electronic voting.

The event is sponsored by CASE Ohio (Citizens Alliance for Secure Elections), Common Cause and other organizations. All events across the country are being held in conjunction with a National Day of Action under the theme "The Computer Ate My Vote.''

[permanent link] posted by rakerman : 6:08 pm (0) comments /

The voter's paper receipt has become the security idée fixe of DRE skeptics, and a shibboleth identifying those who are on the 'right' side of the debate. This is because the paper trail is a concept easily understood and conveniently communicated. It also likely derives much appeal from the fact that it involves an object that one can hold in one's hand and examine, unlike the results of a strictly electronic process.

But it's far more security blanket than security measure. At the moment, there is so much wrong with DRE security that the paper record has become a harmful distraction.

[permanent link] posted by rakerman : 1:31 pm (0) comments /

Bev Harris has unearthed obscure arrest records, ties to conservative political groups and other embarrassing secrets of senior executives at voting companies.

Her conclusion: there will be so many problems with the more than 100,000 paperless voting terminals to be used in the November presidential election that the fiasco will dwarf Florida's hanging chad debacle of 2000.

"We have a train wreck that's definitely going to happen," Harris said. "We have conflict of interest, we've taken the checks and balances away, and we know the votes are already being miscounted fairly frequently. This is going to be huge."

[permanent link] posted by rakerman : 4:07 pm (0) comments /

Civil rights advocates and computer experts today urged all counties planning to use DRE (direct recording electronic), or touch-screen, voting systems to immediately implement security precautions, including independent expert access to the systems' source code.

The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law issued a set of minimum essential security steps recommended by Eric Lazarus and a team of IT security experts, including Howard Schmidt, former cyber-security advisor to the White House.

[permanent link] posted by rakerman : 7:32 pm (0) comments /

Election officials in 14 California counties are busily piecing together plans to bring paper ballots back to polling booths for the November presidential election.

Under orders from Secretary of State Kevin Shelley, counties that had leaped to electronic voting must backtrack. Some must abandon their touch-screen systems for now; others can keep them if they supplement the electronic balloting with paper versions.

It's part of Shelley's mandate to ensure an accurate vote count so California isn't branded with the ignominious reputation that plagued Florida after the 2000 presidential election.

[permanent link] posted by rakerman : 7:22 am (0) comments /