[EM] Re: touch screen voting machines

[Ken Johnson]

David GLAUDE wrote:

>
>
> It is not acceptable for the voter to run out of the voting location 
> with a receipt. This mean I have something that proof my vote. I could 
> be forced to show my receipt and if I did not vote as I was asked... 
> face the consequence.
>
> The secrecy of the vote make it impossible to have a hardcopy you take 
> at home!!! Not even a magic number secretly encoded or else.
>
>
I agree that it is not acceptable for the voter to be given a voting 
receipt if they don't want one. The voting machine can ask "Do you want 
an auditable voting receipt?"; if not you just click "No". But I feel 
strongly that I should have the OPTION of being able to verify that my 
particular ballot was counted the way I voted, and no one but me should 
have access to the information identifying me with my vote.

I see no reason why elections cannot be run with degree of accuracy, 
reliability, and professionalism as financial transactions. The kinds of 
errors and general sloppiness that typify election processes would be 
absoutely intolerable in the financial industry. Computerized financial 
transactions are reliable because they are traceable and auditable; 
elections are not. The individual voter has no way to confirm that their 
vote has been properly counted. The idea that we should fully entrust 
the security of our electoral process to a few whiz-bang computer 
experts just seems a little too "Big-Brotherish" to me, and I would like 
to be able to verify for myself that my vote got counted.

Ken Johnson