[EM] Re: Election-methods digest, Vol 1 #152 - 6 msgs

[Eric Gorr]

At 10:15 AM -0700 7/10/03, Alex Small wrote:
>Eric Gorr said:
>>  John B. Hodges said:
>>
>>>Greetings- Everyone on this list should read the following link:
>>>
>>>http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/voting.shtml
>>>
>>>Which makes me seriously question any voting system that requires
>>>  computers to count or calculate at any stage of the process.
>>
>>  And before computers, it was not unheard of for criminals to
>  > manipulate the paper ballots.
>
>Excellent point.  However, the additional problem posed with relying
>_solely_ on computers are
>
>1)  digital information can be altered without leaving much evidence,
>unlike analog paper ballots (kept as backups), which may show tears,
>erasures, fingerprints, or whatever)
>2)  the data can be manipulated remotely, either via a "backdoor" in the
>network connection or, even more insidiously, via deliberate programming
>"bugs", which might be programmed to erase themselves and leave behind
>only "clean" code after the damage has been done.

As near as I can tell, these aren't additional problems, just, 
perhaps, different ones and can be dealt with accordingly.

Some problems, when not using paper ballots, can disappear or be made 
far more difficult.

>  I want some reliable paper ballots (i.e. probably not
>punch-cards) as backup, guarded in a highly transparent manner, so that we
>can check them against the digital record.

Of course. There are a wide variety of measures which can be used.


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== Eric Gorr ========= http://www.ericgorr.net ========= ICQ:9293199 ===
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