[svlug] Avi Rubin on electronic voting machines

[Karen Shaeffer]

On Mon, Dec 19, 2005 at 10:27:46AM -0800, Ian MacLure wrote:
> <quote whom="karen schaeffer">
>   > This one is very interesting, especially when you read
>   > Dr. Rubin's BIO. A link to his BIO is right there on the page  
> > http://www.huffingtonpost.com/avi-rubin/the-dirty-little-secrets-_b_12354.html
> 
> > This is shocking stuff. How can a country that leads the world in
> > technology be so inept at creating electronic voting machines? And even
> > more shocking, how can the mainstream press ignore this?
> </quote>
> 
> What is driving the move to electronic voting anyhow?
> Why do we need instant gratification after the polls close?
> Paper ballots aren't perfect ( ask any Republican in a 
> large US city [Chicago springs instantly to mind] about
> electoral corruption ) but they work.


Hi Ian,

Let's boil this down to one essential truth: Where ever a strong
political group controls the political power in some geographic
area of any extent -- there will be those within that organization
who will resort to acting in whatever way possible to limit the
impact on elections of those who disagree with their political
perspective. This has always been true, right back to the days of
the founding of this nation, when only land owners could vote. You
mention another well known example. There are many other examples
of such instances -- but our current discussion isn't really about
this though. Electronic voting machines are the future. We are
discussing electronic voting machines -- how they are implemented,
and experiences folks have had with them.

If you have been following the flow of information on the laws that
are governing the implementation of electronic voting machines and
the results of tests and analysis of the way electronic voting
machines have been implemented to date, then you ought to be very
concerned. These machines, when implemented with less than optimal
security and functionality, present tremendous risk for corruption
of the vote -- including the potential to not leave any evidence of
tampering.

Electronic voting machines are the wave of the future for elections.
I believe the implementation of these systems is a rather important
issue for folks who care about the integrity of future elections. The
early history of these systems is shocking.

Happy Holidays,
Karen
-- 
 Karen Shaeffer
 Neuralscape, Palo Alto, Ca. 94306
 shaeffer at neuralscape.com  http://www.neuralscape.com