October 30, 2006
Voting the e-way
Just because things are looking up for a democratic victory in congress, doesn't mean that we will have a fair election. In fact, there is many a rat to be found inside our spanking new e-voting machines -- on which, I am sure, precincts have spent a pretty penny.
Black Box Voting has been following this issue since 2005 when our own Government Accountability Office issued a poorly publicized report on flaws in electronic voting.
Movies anyone?
In the ASK THIS column over at NeimanWatchdog.org, the website run by Harvard's Neiman Fellows, the world's finest journalists, Lawrence Norden , an attorney doing voting systems analysis at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU, has a list of questions journalists (and we) should all be asking:
More last-minute questions about e-votingAre you ready for an electronic voting nightmare in your area? Are your election officials? Here are some questions for before and after the upcoming elections.
In the coming days, ask:
Q. How many emergency paper ballots will each polling place have available in case machines break down? Do you have clear procedures in place for distribution and use of such ballots? What are they? Will these ballots be counted under all circumstances, or will they be treated as "provisional" ballots?
Q. Do your voting machines have wireless components, and if so, will they be disabled on Election Day?
Q. Do you have independent election workers (as opposed to employees or contractors from the vendor) who can offer technical support for dealing with the electronic voting machines? If so, how many hours training have they received on these machines?
Q. Do all polling places have a list of key phone numbers to contact in the event of emergencies during the election that might affect the ability of voters to cast votes? How many personnel will you have available to answer such calls?
On the eve of election and afterward, ask:
Q. What steps were taken to ensure that totals printed out at the polling place were accurately recorded and totalled at the county tally server? Were pollworkers asked to check the Web and newspapers against copies of their polling place totals to ensure that the tally server correctly tallied their polling place votes?
Q. What were the procedures for getting vote totals and audit information (i.e., Event Logs, VVPAT records, paper ballots, machine printouts of totals) from each polling place to the central county office? Who transported this information? What measures were in place to ensure that they were delivered securely?
Also see David Dill's Last-minute questions about e-voting from October 18.
For more background on electronic voting and voting security, see Lawrence Norden's November 2005 item for NiemanWatchdog.org: Following up on an important GAO report on electronic voting and other NiemanWatchdog.org items on this important issue.
Of course the Republicans ,always ready to even the immorality score, are projecting again, shouting unfair, and establishing extra barriers for voters in key states
Rather than asking questions, why not be proactive? After all, once an election is stolen, we don't go back (see 2000 and 2004) Here are instructions for hacking the vote. I'd do it for you folks, but I'm such a technodummy, I can't even register. This is as far as I got.
Photo note: Ronnie and Nancy bedroom slippers, shot in an antique shop this summer. Ah, it makes one long for the good old days. Simply slip them on, and step all over voter's rights.
Addendum: Don't they look like they're feeling bad about what they started?
Posted by Dakota at October 30, 2006 07:08 PM