[geeks] I just saw...

[Lionel Peterson]

>From: Patrick Giagnocavo <patrick at zill.net>
>Date: 2006/11/07 Tue PM 09:42:03 CST
>To: The Geeks List <geeks at sunhelp.org>
>Subject: Re: [geeks] I just saw...

>On Nov 7, 2006, at 10:23 PM, Lionel Peterson wrote:
>>
>> The movie left me with the belief thatif Diebold would simply:
>>
>
>
>Personally, I think that a consortium led by VISA/AMEX/Mastercard 
>should have been chosen to run the US elections.

My response to the movie isn't how "I" would fix the problem, it was the obvious conclusion from the superficial "analysis" in the movie... In my opinion, if we want electronic voting, I would defer to state gaming commisions and the methods used to secure slot machines. If I were to try and fix the problem, my fix would be similar to Avi Rubin's solution - a ballot generator, counted manually.

All this talk of paper trail and audit receipts is a bad idea, in my opinion - if a machine makes two independent records,one electronic, one on paper - if they diverge, which is trusted? If one is not trusted, why include it in the process?
 
>We would have the results 15 minutes after the polls close and it would 
>be accurate down to the penny (vote).


We don't need answers that fast IMHO, and it' hard for me to justify the expense to provide answers that fast - but that's me.

>There would be an audit trail and anyone confused about their vote 
>could call an 800-number and read the voting code on their paper 
>receipt (like the approval code on your Visa receipt) and have an 
>assurance that their vote was properly recorded.  There are relatively 
>simple ways to double-blind this kind of data so that no one person can 
>figure out who voted for which candidate so that it cannot be abused.

No - no receipt you can carry away to prove you voted a certain way, not ever - that leads to vote selling...

>Course Democrats will never go for it ... Philly had larger than 
>average turnout among key constituencies including dead voters, I 
>suppose - just like in 2000 and 2004 when 108% of registered voters 
>actually voted.

I heard a great line on talk radio about the dead voting - Dems would say it's OK for the dead to vote, because if we had (federally funded [0]) stem-cell research they'd still be alive.

>I expect PA will get even more refugees from NY and MA and NJ... which 
>will in turn change PA from "purple" to "blue" in the coming years.

I won't be migrating to PA - I hate pumping my own gas.

Lionel

[0] for some reason, people forget to include those words in the argument - you can do the research in the US, the federal gov't just doesn't want to foot the bill... States fund it, some private foundations fund it, etc...