Kairos Blog

Along for the Journey, on God's Time...

  • Home
  • About Kairosblog
  • Links
  • Sermons
  • About Chad
You are here: Home / america / More on electronic voting…

More on electronic voting…

December 1, 2006 by kairos 5 Comments

Justin Rood says, “Electronic voting machines mostly suck“. I’ve offered some thoughts here and there on this topic on this blog, but now it seems that the National Institute of Standards and Technology thinks paperless electronic voting machines are a problem, too:

Paperless electronic voting machines used throughout the Washington region and much of the country “cannot be made secure,” according to draft recommendations issued this week by a federal agency that advises the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.

The assessment by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, one of the government’s premier research centers, is the most sweeping condemnation of such voting systems by a federal agency.

In a report hailed by critics of electronic voting, NIST said that voting systems should allow election officials to recount ballots independently from a voting machine’s software. The recommendations endorse “optical-scan” systems in which voters mark paper ballots that are read by a computer and electronic systems that print a paper summary of each ballot, which voters review and elections officials save for recounts.

The key word is ‘Paperless’. Actually, the idea of paper is just the notion of having some kind of traiI that can be verified at the time of voting and later during recount. I think the Diebold and other touch-screen systems could work if there was a secured paper trail along with the system: something of a locked, transparent container attached to the actual machine that printed off your vote when you made it (so you could see it and verify it before actually voting). If we’re going to keep using these systems, we need this now. Or else we’ll see more stories like this one coming out of Florida.

  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: america Tagged With: america, voting

Comments

  1. will spotts says

    December 1, 2006 at 9:07 am

    I can’t figure out what the resistance to a paper trail is. I wonder if people don’t realize how fragile our system is in some ways. I mean not just the potential for fraud, but the potential for large numbers of Americans to believe that the system is rigged. If people lose confidence in the political process as a means to participate they are left with very few options.

    Reply
  2. Not Prince Hamlet says

    December 1, 2006 at 12:01 pm

    While I was waiting in line to vote last month, anxious to use the touch screen console for the first time ever, this is the [very loud] conversation that was taking place between a voter and an election worker:

    Worker: “Would you like to use the touch-screen console or the optical scan ballot?
    Voter: “How does the touch-screen one work?”
    Worker: “I don’t know. I don’t trust it myself.”

    Nice, I thought. Could it not be the case that this election worker could be seen as influencing the outcome of the election by casting dispersions on one of the methods?

    Reply
  3. kairos says

    December 1, 2006 at 3:18 pm

    I can’t figure it out either, Will. And your concern is one I share: trust in the basic institutions of our democracy is eroded if people do not think their votes are accurately measured. This seems like it could be an easy one to improve, without a cost that would exceed the benefit.

    Reply
  4. kairos says

    December 1, 2006 at 3:19 pm

    Its telling, NPH, that one of the workers wouldn’t even us it himself.

    We don’t have a choice here, or if we do they aren’t overt about the matter.

    Reply
  5. will spotts says

    December 1, 2006 at 9:58 pm

    I was tangentially involved in a similar conversation between a poll worker and the person in line ahead of me. MD had already had difficulties with the machines in our primaries, so I think the election worker was afraid we’d be the next FL 2000.

    Locally, elections went how I expected, so I have no reason to distrust the machine’s results this time — but not having an audit trail still concerns me.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Chad Andrew Herring

Chad Herring

kairos :: creature of dust :: child of God :: husband of 18 years :: father of 2 :: teaching elder/minister of word and sacrament in the presbyterian church (u.s.a.) :: exploring a progressive-reformed – emergent-christianity :: more

The Dream Team

While kairosblog has an extensive blogroll, the following are particularly meaningful to me, and are commended for your edification:

landonwhitsitt, Landon, SOMA Synod Exec
yorocko, the inimitable Rocky Supinger
a church for starving artists, Jan Edmiston's blog
glass overflowing, Marci Glass's incredible writing, fellow pastor and friend
Bruce Reyes-Chow, former pcusa moderator
Carol Howard Merritt, tribal church
Adam Walker Cleaveland, pomomusings

Kairos Tags

Add new tag advent america Andrew Sullivan bible blogging blogs church church life CSArtists Current Affairs Driscoll ECUSA emergent ethics evangelical evangelism faith fundamentalism global affairs grace health homosexuality humanity lent marriage media ministry Music NPHamlet PCUSA personal politics prayer Religion RLP Rob Bell Science scripture silliness/humor social justice theology Torture voting war and peace

Subscribe to Kairosblog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Archives

Miscellany

© 2018 Chad Andrew Herring

Site banner includes the image "Time"
by Maria Teresa Ambrosi, modification by permission under creative commons license.
Background picture "Chronos" by Brayan Zapata,
used by permission under creative commons license.

Responsibility for content is my own, and not attributable to The Kirk I am fortunate enough to serve or the Presbytery that maintains my ordination, though each keeps me accountable.

Powered by Wordpress, Caffeine, and Luck.
Get the Genesis Framework for wordpress, it rocks!

Recent Posts

  • Sermon: To Stand Where Jesus Stands
  • Easter Sermon: A Life for Fools
  • Good Friday Meditation: You’re Not Alone
  • Sermon: Much Ado…
  • Sermon: God the Giver

Follow me on Twitter

My Tweets

Copyright © 2018 · Metro Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.