[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: [Full-Disclosure] Will a vote for John Kerry be counted by a Hart InterCivic eSlate3000 in Honolulu?



On Thu, 21 Oct 2004 10:29:52 -0400
>   But, it's your vote, you can vote for anyone that you wish, I'll defend
> that right to the end, even if Kerry wants to take it away....
> 
>   My vote will be PROUDLY cast for Bush, just like it was 4 years ago.
   
The problem is that neither you nor I nor any of the rest of the people who are 
voting will know whether the result of the election reflects the will of the 
people or not.  We have no way of knowing if your vote for Bush will be counted 
as a vote for him or not.  There are computer based voting machines in use in 
this election that are known to be insecure, that were not designed to follow 
any of the academic work that has been done on the theory of secure electronic 
voting, that are running on operating systems that are known to be insecure, 
that are using a network that is known to be insecure.  These machines do not 
produce a voter verified paper trail (e.g. printing out a voter's choices on a 
paper ballot which is displayed to the voter and then retained in a ballot box 
at the poling place [which could be a roll of paper tape inside the voting 
machine]).  You will cast your vote, I will cast my vote, and neither of us 
will know if our votes have any effect on the result !
 of the election, or if the election will be decided by security 
vulnerabilites.  Yes we can (in some, but not all juristictions) request a 
paper ballot.  But we know that these, like absentee ballots, will not be 
counted unless the results reported by the voting equipment chosen by the local 
voting officials are so close that the number of paper ballots is large enough 
to potentially alter the result.  Ignore all the flames about the politics - 
emotions are high all over about this election - the important issue is that 
because insecure computer based voting machines without paper trails are being 
used in some places in this election, we will not know whether the results of 
this election, regardless of who wins, reflect the votes that people actually 
cast.  

-Paul

Attachment: pgp00064.pgp
Description: PGP signature