Eric Gorr said:John B. Hodges said:> manipulate the paper ballots.
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
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.
-- == Eric Gorr ========= http://www.ericgorr.net ========= ICQ:9293199 === "Therefore the considerations of the intelligent always include both benefit and harm." - Sun Tzu == Insults, like violence, are the last refuge of the incompetent... === ---- Election-methods mailing list - see http://electorama.com/em for list info
