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3 Voting Technologies
Pages 34-44

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From page 34...
... By automating vote counting, punch card systems greatly speeded vote tabulation/counting and somewhat reduced the potential for error and fraud as compared to hand-counted paper ballots, but systematic machine error and intentional damage to or tampering with voting or tabulating equipment remained possibilities. (In addition, certain punch card systems may have increased the number of failures to record voters' intentions because of the poor feedback available on these systems.)
From page 35...
... Even from the brief description above, it should be apparent that computer technology and voting and elections intersected long before the public debate about electronic voting systems came to the fore. But as often happens, the importance and greater visibility of the electronic ballot marking systems that voters use directly have highlighted both the potential problems and the new opportunities -- and both problems and opportunities are now at the center of the public debate.
From page 36...
... Certain possibilities for fraud -- in particular, those that were most common in the past with hand-counted paper ballots or mechanical voting devices -- are greatly reduced, because the expertise needed for committing such fraud is greater and the media involved are different. Where the voter is using an electronic ballot marking system, the possibilities of voter error may be reduced, as electronic voting machines can be programmed to check for common voter mistakes such as overvoting and because these voting systems can reduce the need for subjective assessments of potential voter intention.
From page 37...
... A second kind of traditional voting system is the lever machine. Such machines are based on the use of a ballot that is posted in the voting booth to indicate the correspondence between lever and candidate or proposition.
From page 38...
... Today, direct verification systems are based on punch cards and optical scanning. · Punch card systems are based on a physical document ballot and computerized vote tabulation.
From page 39...
... For both systems, multiple punch cards must be used for long ballots. · Optical scan systems (sometimes called Marksense systems)
From page 40...
... ballot rather than creating the records after the polls close from the electronic records stored on the voting device, and many electronic voting skeptics believe that contemporaneous creation provides a high degree of traceability from the voter's intent to ballots that can be physically counted. With a physical record in hand, vote tabulations can be undertaken in principle repeatedly should they become necessary (e.g., if a recount is necessary)
From page 41...
... The central server would have been responsible for authenticating the voter's credentials, presenting the correct ballot through the Web browser from the appropriate community, receiving user input representing his or her votes, and transmitting the records of every individual vote cast to local election authorities in the appropriate community. An application running in those communities would then integrate the cast vote records received with votes cast in polling places and by mail.
From page 42...
... 3.3 THE LARGER CONTEXT In practice, public debate over electronic voting has devolved into an argument over the technical security of voting systems and whether or not a paper trail to facilitate election auditing is or is not desirable from a public policy perspective. While these issues are important, there are a broad range of end-to-end issues, from the point of capturing the voter's intent to assuring an accurate final tabulation of votes.
From page 43...
... includes matters such as voter registration databases, election planning and administration, procurement of election systems, and so on. Thus, the issue of accuracy of vote counts has to be examined in the context of the entire electoral process.
From page 44...
... 44 ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS ABOUT ELECTRONIC VOTING for and chad a Service. for with numbers ballots longer direct search Problems Inefficient complicated large of Hanging problems Requires companion system voters disabilities No manufactured No verification Re Acquisition Cost Low Low Medium High High Congressional the of http://www.electiondataservices.com/ Use at Fischer, Absentee Ballot Yes Sometimes Yes No No Eric or or .Available by Central Precinct Counting Depends Precinct Precinct central Precinct Depends 11/02/2004 committee of the as to Today Error Checking None Yes Yes Some Yes Type Use by in presented was Summary Tabulation Manual Computer- assisted Computer- assisted Mechanical Computer- assisted chart this of Technologies 2004.


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