Loaned election'puters (was Re: [EM] Hitler-Stalin-Middle Exampl

[Lucien Saumur]

In an article, seppley at alumni.caltech.edu ("Steve Eppley") writes:

>>>           There are millions of PC's around and some of them may surely
>>> be rented or borrowed for a day.
>>
>>Yes, but setting them up and using them *for an official election* is a 
>>non-trivial task.  The labor is not something to write off.  It is 
>>*expensive*.  I doubt that people could be sold on the idea of using a 
>>ragtag collection of "loaner" computers for an election.  
>
>I wouldn't trust a loaned computer.  Each would have to be checked 
>for tampering (like special EPROM chips).
>
>On the other hand, I wouldn't trust official computers either if 
>they're not independently checked.

          The computer may be trusted to produce the
ballots because the voter may check that the ballot is as
he expects it to be and he may scream, if it is not. The
only problem is that the computer may record the votes. But
I am sure that safeguards may be developed against this
possibility.
          
          The computer may be trusted to tally the ballots
correctly because the tallying process may be done before
representatives of the candidates who may have their own
laptop to verify that the official count is correct.
          
          To make verification even more reliable, the
ballots could be displayed on a TV screen as they are
counted and a video tape could me made and duplicated for
the benefit of the candidates' representatives who may then
go away and verify the count to their heart's content.

__________________________________________
          aa447 at FreeNet.Carleton.CA
          http://www.igs.net/~lsaumur/