It’s pretty normal to see a few ballot errors right up to Election Day. Absentee voters have already reported a variety of problems, across the country. It wouldn’t normally be a major issue.

But in this election, ballots may be a bigger question than we expect. There are some pretty serious questions on the reliability of the electronic voting machines that are used in most precincts these days, and problems with paper ballots just makes the situation worrying. The fact that various groups have demonstrated how easy it is to affect a voting machine isn’t exactly reassuring, either.  All this is complicated by the fact that just about every voting precinct in the country is expecting record turnout this year.

More and more reports of problems keep popping up in the news. No matter whether you’re voting early, absentee or on election day, it’s up to you to be aware of what’s going on with the ballots and voting machines in your own area.

Post from: EveryJoe

Voting’s Getttng Scary

In my county, we use Diebold machines — purchased before Diebold became Premier Election Solutions last year. The demographics of our judges skews heavily toward the older end of the spectrum, although there are younger judges as well. But it’s not just age that causes some of the technical programs: these machines are just specialized computers and prone to all the problems of any other computer. Loose cables, power surges and other such problems happen with voting machines, too. What does worry me about the judges, though, is that few of them are technically minded. An unplugged cable requires help from IT — and I’m scared to consider the ramifications of that fact on a day when we expect record turnout and have one IT guy for ten precincts.

Wish me luck on Election Day. I think I’m going to need it.

And one last bit of information, folks: most precincts are expecting record turnout this year and don’t have enough judges to handle it. Check with your local board of elections if you’re interested in working as an election judge. In some states, you’ll even get paid for your work.

Post from: EveryJoe

Election Day Worries

Open source voting machines would require the code behind the software to be easily accessible — anyone could dissect it to find out where problems are. Many people assume that this also means that it would be easier for any person with a little computer knowledge to tamper with a voting machine. If that was true, though, why are so many governments comfortable using Linux to run vital systems full time? Even banks — like the state-owned Industrial and Commercial Bank of China is comfortable using Linux machines for a number of tasks. That easy access to open source code is actually what makes Linux systems less likely to have security breaches: so many more people look at Linux’s code before it’s implemented that a much higher number of security flaws can be addressed. The companies producing voting machines simply can’t afford to hire a similar number of people.

While open source software is not a cure-all for the problems with electronic voting, I do think it could address a surprisingly large number of them, including the high cost of such machines. The real problem with adopting open source voting machines is one of the key issues with electronic voting: there’s a distinct lack of trust for both options. People trust paper trails, and so far, voters have not embraced electronic options, and until they are more comfortable with the idea, I’m not sure how successful an open source approach will be.

Post from: EveryJoe

Can Open Source Save Electronic Voting?

That’s where Tiffany Jastrzembski of the Air Force Research Laboratory and Neil Charness of Florida State University come in. In the Fall 2007 edition of the journal “Ergonomics in Design” (which is a real page-turner, lemmetellya), they present a great comparison of different types of electronic voting techniques. They focus specifically on reducing confusion and errors among the elderly, which have the highest voter turnout rate of any age group. (In 2004, for instance, turnout as 69% among those 65 and older, while for those ages 18-24 it was merely 42%.)

They tested four different methods of electronic voting:

1. A touch-screen interface on which the entire ballot was displayed. Voters used a light pen to record their votes, then confirm their choices by clicking on an Accept Vote box at the bottom.
2. A touch-screen interface on which only one office (President, Senator, etc.) at a time. This one also used the light pen, and each individual question had its own Accept Vote box.
3. A hybrid system that displayed the entire ballot at once. Voters used a keypad to record their votes, then used the light pen to click the Accept Vote box when finished.
4. A hybrid system that showed one office at a time. Again, voters used the keypad and finished up with the light pen.

They found that Method 2 caused the least confusion and fewest errors among all age groups. Being able to focus on and confirm one office at a time helped voters minimize their mistakes.

Can you guess which method was the worst?

So now we know how to design electronic voting systems that minimize confusion and errors. And you thought I was going to write about the Iowa Caucuses.

Post from: EveryJoe

4 Electronic Voting Methods – Which One is the Best?

Coffman has declared the fallibility of electronic voting, but the responses of the various county election boards, as well as the county clerks responsible for overseeing elections.

In an interview with Denver’s Channel 7 News, Denver Clerk and Recorder Stephanie O’Malley said the following:

This report is really just part of the larger equation for us. Once we feel we have the full picture of what the Secretary of State’s report means, we can move forward with choosing our systems and preparing for the 2008 election season.

To me, that sounds like Denver will still be using an electronic voting system, assuming they can find one that Coffman will okay.

The problems with the current selection of electronic voting machines are numerous. But we’re getting down to crunch time: the countdown to the Iowa primary is barely longer than the countdown to New Year’s Eve. For all those states hesitant about using voting machines that they have to plug in, they better make a decision and fast! After all, even Kinko’s isn’t up to delivering the 2.5 million ballots the state of Colorado needs.

Post from: EveryJoe

Coffman nixes Colorado’s electronic voting machines