E-voting needs paper trail, scientists say
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Electronic voting machines should not be used in the United States without a paper-based backup to ensure they tally votes correctly, computer experts working for the U.S. government say.
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InfoWorld - A coalition of voting rights groups on Monday called on the U.S. Congress to pass legislation that would require electronic voting machines to have printers attached as a way to audit the touch-screen results.
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Electoral districts opting to use&#160;electronic voting machines&#160;face significant costs, some hidden, according to a new report from the French Internet Rights Forum.The machines cost an average of &#8364;4,400 ($6,300) each for a voting station serving 800 to 1000 electors, but electoral districts faced many other costs associated with their use, according to the Forum. Some districts had difficulty evaluating those costs, the French IT lobbying group wrote in &quot;An interim report on the use of voting machines for electronic voting in the political elections of 2007.&quot;The report, based on a questionnaire sent to election managers in districts using the machines, does not deal with other matters of public concern, including the security and usability of the machines: the Forum plans to cover those in a fuller report next year.Use of electronic voting machines has grown in France in recent years: 15 electoral districts used them in local and European elections in 2004, 55 districts used them in a referendum in 2005, and 82 sought permission to use them for the presidential election, although four subsequently changed their minds.Around 3.3 percent of French electors live in districts that used voting machines in the presidential election: the others used paper ballots.Traditionally, French electors receive a separate ballot paper for each candidate standing in an election. They place the paper for their preferred candidate in an envelope, and then drop the envelope in a ballot box, which is transparent so that everyone can see it contained no votes at the start of the election.One district said it expected to save tons of paper through not having to provide the ballot papers -- but not all paper could be avoided, as the rules require that each elector be mailed an envelope containing a flyer for each candidate.For paper elections, that envelope must also contain the corresponding ballot papers for each candidate, so that electors will recognize them when they arrive at the polling station. That mailing is paid for by central government.Saving paper did not mean saving money for districts using voting machines: they had to pay for an additional mailing showing how the candidates&#39; &quot;ballot papers&quot; would appear on screen. Some of these had to be sent at express letter rates because of delays in programming the machines. No district questioned had foreseen those additional costs, according to the Forum.At the legislative elections in May and June, the on-screen presentation of ballots presented another problem. In districts where there were many candidates, it was not possible for some voting machines to display all their names and party affiliations on the screen at the same time. Meeting this legal requirement is not a problem with ballot papers, which can be placed side by side on a large table.Some districts said their decision to use machines was based on cost, as they saw the use of electronic voting machines as a way to cut down on the labor-intensive process of counting ballot papers. One district estimated this at &#8364;13,000 per election. Only one district surveyed said it expected its costs to increase.Several districts had to buy additional machines, doubling them up at the last minute in some polling stations when it became apparent that voters could not operate the machines fast enough. However, the French elections regulator has ruled that only one machine can be used per polling station, as under French law, each machine is considered equivalent to a ballot box, and to avoid fraud, only one ballot box is used per station. That leaves such districts with the additional administrative cost of creating new polling stations, staffing them and informing electors of their new voting place in future elections.Among the other hidden expenses cited by the forum are the potential cost of replacement machines. The districts surveyed have not budgeted to upgrade their to cope with evolving regulations or technological threats. One district expects its machines to last for 15 or 20 years, while others cited 5 to 10 year lifespans more realistic for battery-powered electronic devices.Other ongoing costs included secure storage of the machines to prevent tampering; service contracts and extensions to guarantees; software licenses; provision of additional devices for the blind or partially sighted, and fees for notaries certifying the condition of the machines.Districts have faced legal challenges -- so far unsuccessful -- to block the use of voting machines because of concerns about security or transparency. One charge is that while almost any elector is capable of verifying that the transparent ballot boxes are empty at the start of the election, few have the technical knowledge to verify that a machine showing a counter reset to zero has not been tampered with in some other way -- and in any case, electoral procedures do not allow citizens to conduct the in-depth investigations that would be required.Some of those questioned by the Forum called for central government to spend more money on educating voters about the security of the three models of voting machines authorized for use, and the type certification process the machines have gone through. Those models -- the iVotronic, manufactured by Election Systems &amp; Software and distributed in France by Datamatique; the Point &amp; Vote from Indra Sistemas, and the ESF1 from NV Nederlandsche Apparatenfabriek (Nedap) -- are certified for use indefinitely in France.&#160;
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Advocates for paper-verifiable electronic voting were encouraged Wednesday by unanimously passing a resolution calling for the drafting of requirements for independently verifiable voting records, just days after a different audit proposal was rejected.
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County election officials have been among the staunchest advocates of electronic voting, insisting that computers are as reliable as paper ballots.
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As the November presidential election nears, several groups are mobilizing to monitor the voting process -- including a group of observers from across the globe and over a thousand techies who will help evaluate voting machines. By Laila Weir.
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Hoping to avoid the problems of dimpled ballots and hanging chads, election officials around the U.S. will rely on electronic voting machines for tomorrow's presidential vote. But are the machines secure?
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Social scientists say that linking emotional breakdowns to ballots cannot be dismissed easily.
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A report by Princeton University researchers questions the security measures used in Diebold Election Systems' touch-screen voting systems. But the company disputed the concerns, saying its e-voting hardware is safe from tampering.
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The 100,000 electronic voting machines in use in Tuesday's election have a big downside: Candidates who dispute the results won't have a way to conduct a meaningful recount. Analysis by Kim Zetter.
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The success of last week's primary election using touch-screen voting machines heartens officials in other states, where e-voting has been problematic. Still, the Silver State may be in a unique situation.
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Unreliable electronic voting systems could undermine UK democracy warns a report
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If you think the country is divided and rancorous about the presidential contest, try polling a few experts about the accuracy and security of electronic voting.
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As the primary season continues, observers of the electronic-voting scene ask whether it's possible to tally the ballots efficiently while restoring Americans' faith in the process. Random, mandatory audits of cast ballots show promise, but even after demonstrated successes, not everyone's on board.
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No magic bullet, people As the UK braces for electronic voting trials in the next round of local elections, the US Government Audit Office (GAO) has warned that e-voting systems could undermine the integrity of the whole election process if not properly managed.â¦
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According to researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, counties with electronic voting machines were significantly more likely to show increased support for President Bush compared to counties with paper ballots or optical scan equipment.
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More than 4,500 votes have been lost in one North Carolina county because officials believed a computer that stored ballots electronically could hold more data than it did. Scattered other problems may change results in races around the state.