You hear stories of how electronic voting is causing issues and it makes you wonder if we can get a fair vote. There are issues with manual counts and with machine counts of paper ballots which is why there has to be a certain % between voting counts in race before a recount is called. If the vote is close, a recount will undoubtedly change the numbers. In fact if multiple recounts were done, the vote would be different every time. That is the appeal of electronic voting. It should be more accurate and reliable.
I recently voted in a primary election in my district in Johnson County, Kansas. We use the Diebold touch screen voting machines. What is also interesting is that there are no more private voting booths. So much for the sanctity of the vote. It used to be like going to confessional as you were sequestered behind the scared voting curtains all alone to cast your vote in total secrecy. No more. Now no one can be left alone with an electronic machine because they might tamper with it. So down come all the curtains and so much for the secret ballot.
I was very cautious about my voting since I have watched "Hacking Democracy" and "Recount." I was fully aware that these voting machines are less than stellar.
Wouldn't you know it? I selected a candidate and touched the box for his name...but it registered for the opponent. The screen flurried a brief second and my vote was in the opponents box! I grabbed an election official and was shown how to change the vote back. Lesson learned: watch very carefully when you vote. If your vote is not recorded correctly, do not complete the vote. Get help to make the proper changes. That takes care of what you see in the user interface.
You still have to wonder about what goes on behind the scenes in the backend code of the database. Johns Hopkins University computer scientist Avi Rubin and grad students Adam Stubblefield and Yoshi Kohno examined the Diebold source code and released a report indicating that the company's touch-screen voting system was badly programmed and vulnerable to hacking by outsiders or manipulation by insiders. Diebold and election officials attacked the team's research, but two subsequent reports have confirmed the academics' findings. Read more...
Additional information:
OpenVotingConsortium - worst flaw ever in Diebold voting machines revealed
Wired - now even Diebold cannot refute there are problems
Princeton - Security Audit of the Diebold voting machine show serious security flaws
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Buzz it up
