Blacksmith101
Grumpy Old Man
- Jun 22, 2012
- 22,156
Go back to marked paper ballots with electronic scanning. Just as fast or faster (no fumbling at the computer, more voters just hand out more pencils) and a paper trail that can be verified.
Maybe a dumb question but is your voter registration card required for the early voting? I seem to have misplaced mine.
I've been seeing this message posted on Change Maryland's facebook page in the comments section:
"Please share this HOTLINE 443-837-9223 and immediately report any inaccurate votes. There have been numerous reports of voting machines not being calibrated correctly and registering inaccurate votes. Thank you"
and
"Here is the Hotline number for the Larry Hogan campaign and if you notice anything wrong with the voting machines in MD, call it and an attorney will answer 443-837-9223 Please share so voters know. Thank you"
Perhaps I am just extremely jaded, but even with a receipt, I am not sure that I would believe that the machine isn't just printing what someone programed it to want me to believe, and posting something different. What is there to prevent that?
The only thing I can think of, is the receipt has a verification code, that if presented to the board of elections, you can have your ballet read back to you.
The reason you don't get a printed receipt, and likely never will, is that it makes selling your vote so much easier.
I'll give you $50 to vote for candidate X, just bring your receipt...
What bothers me the most, is that these flips happened to be caught by vigilant voters who were watching the screen.
Imagine how many flips took place and never got noticed due to inattention, being in a hurry, or, dare I say, trust.
This is my question as well... How many DON'T we know about? I'd venture it's more than we DO know of.
I saw a video of someone "voting" and it doing this. It looked like they "fat fingered" it.
Im not saying there is NOT a problem, but maybe the quantity is now being "over spoken" due to peoples own mistakes?
I dunno
If that is the case why aren't we hearing about Ds flipping to Rs. Not a single case - if there was the media would be on it.
When I go to vote at a Maryland electronic voting machine I will be recording a video with a smartphone.
I should have elaborated;
In short the issue was in comptroller and county executive slots in both, the vote cast resulted in the oppositions box being checked! I was able to correct the entry but the machine remained in service after reporting it to an election judge. Additionally I reported to Maryland State who took little information and referred me to Montgomery County whom I left full details on the issue. The issue was not repeatable and there was not a dead spot on the screen.
The reason you don't get a printed receipt, and likely never will, is that it makes selling your vote so much easier.
I'll give you $50 to vote for candidate X, just bring your receipt...
I think that's less of a realistic issue today. People are already being bribed for votes with blatant pandering and I don't think that what you're describing is scalable beyond the most local of elections. But I think that's kind of a moot point anyway as a paper receipt doesn't tell you anything beyond the fact that the machine printed something out matching your selections. It doesn't tell you that the final vote tally included a correct vote from you.
So you solve both problems with simple solution. Your voter registration comes with credentials to a site maintained by the election commission. All votes from the final tally are tied to an election-specific unique ID, meaning that the ID is different for each person and each election cycle. Following the final tally of votes each election cycle, data is posted on the site. Publicly, the anonymous and unique ID and the votes cast by that ID are available for all for basic tally purposes (i.e. did they add up the votes correctly). Privately, your voter registration card's credentials let you access your assigned unique ID for that cycle (allowing you to verify that your votes were correctly recorded in the master tally).
If you're still concerned about people paying $50 for a vote, make such an arrangement punishable by a mandatory 10 years in Federal prison for both parties and put that info up everywhere around election time. Not a chance any more than a handful of people would risk it at that point and the risk of getting turned in would dissuade almost all would-be vote buyers. And with that, you have verifiable electronic voting. Add a requirement for presentation of ID and proof of eligibility at the voting site and we might even get reasonably accurate elections.
I think that's less of a realistic issue today. People are already being bribed for votes with blatant pandering and I don't think that what you're describing is scalable beyond the most local of elections. But I think that's kind of a moot point anyway as a paper receipt doesn't tell you anything beyond the fact that the machine printed something out matching your selections. It doesn't tell you that the final vote tally included a correct vote from you.
So you solve both problems with simple solution. Your voter registration comes with credentials to a site maintained by the election commission. All votes from the final tally are tied to an election-specific unique ID, meaning that the ID is different for each person and each election cycle. Following the final tally of votes each election cycle, data is posted on the site. Publicly, the anonymous and unique ID and the votes cast by that ID are available for all for basic tally purposes (i.e. did they add up the votes correctly). Privately, your voter registration card's credentials let you access your assigned unique ID for that cycle (allowing you to verify that your votes were correctly recorded in the master tally).
If you're still concerned about people paying $50 for a vote, make such an arrangement punishable by a mandatory 10 years in Federal prison for both parties and put that info up everywhere around election time. Not a chance any more than a handful of people would risk it at that point and the risk of getting turned in would dissuade almost all would-be vote buyers. And with that, you have verifiable electronic voting. Add a requirement for presentation of ID and proof of eligibility at the voting site and we might even get reasonably accurate elections.
Assumimg your serious I pray you are not in IT. Assumimg you are in IT I pray you are not serious. Assuming both I pray you do some research.
One hint... Spoofing.