[ale] OT: Electronic Voting in GA

[Joseph A Knapka]

John Mills wrote:
> Danny -
> 
> Sorry to fuel an 'OT', but there are some interesting technical issues in
> this.
> 
> On 18 Oct 2002, Danny Cox wrote:
> 
> 
>>	Just to really make your weekend:  today, I recieved in the mail a
>>pamplet describing how the new electronic voting machines in GA will
>>work!  They're secure!  They're accurate!  They're fast!  They're
>>completly un-auditable!
> 
> 
> I got the flyer (which confirms what the newspapers have said for weeks
> and the Ga.Sec.State for ~20 months), but didn't expect nor look for
> technical details. What do you mean by 'un-auditable' here, and what would
> you like to see?
> 
> How would you compare auditing a direct-electronic voting system with
> auditing a state's old-style mechanical lever machines?

With mechanical voting machines you have an absolutely irrefutable
physical representation of each voter's vote. With any automated
system, you need some way to be sure that there isn't some code
in there that says, "No matter what buttons the voters press,
record 65% of the vote for candidate A and distribute the
remainder randomly among the other candidates."

Cheers,

-- Joe


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