Voting Machines


By DIA, Section News
Posted on Fri Feb 08, 2008 at 07:07:47 AM EST



Albany County to select unreliable DRE voting systems : NYS Board of Elections to have “emergency meeting”

Activists to Protest – No DREs

Today , Friday Feb. 8th at 12 Noon

NYS Board Of Elections, 40 Steuben St. Albany

“Purchasing voting systems that predictably disenfranchise voters burdens the fundamental right to vote in violation of federal law.2 In addition, Sections 1 and 11 of Article 1 of the New York Constitution preclude the use of discriminatory voting systems.3

Because Ballot Marking Devices that comply with federal and state law are readily available, there can be no justification for New York counties to purchase DRE voting systems for use as Ballot Marking Devices.”

From League of Women Voters/NYVV letter to county election commissioners

Full text of Joint LWVNY/NYVV Letter to County Commissioners can be accessed here

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Voting Machines | 3 comments (3 topical, 0 hidden)
Bullshit arguments (none / 0) (#1)
by AlfredMoisiu on Sat Feb 09, 2008 at 06:59:31 AM EST
I object to touchscreen voting machines in general, not because of some BS arguments about disenfranchising voters, but because frankly, they suck, and will slow down the voting process. The fact that many of the systems are based on Microsoft Access, and are about as secure as an unlocked door doesn't help either.

But New York have been using mechanical DREs for like 50 years. Where has the League of Women been in all of that time? If DRE voting is disenfranchising people and violating the state constitution, why haven't the state courts mandated a replacement in the last 50 years?

You have to draw a line somewhere regarding what will be accomodated and what won't. People object to paper ballots because the ignorant and illiterate can't handle putting an "X" in the box. They object to punch cards because of the whole Florida debacle. People object to internet voting because of security concerns. They don't like anything because people who only speak Urdu can't vote.

IMO, you can't design a single system that will accomodate everyone. A system that will accomodate the blind, non-english speakers, people with twitches who can't fill in circles, people who can't read, etc will become so complex and unwieldy that real security or other flaws that disenfranchise everyone will become an issue.

There has to be a better way. I would have no problem with creating specialized voting machines for specific disabilities. Have braille readers for the blind, etc. Hell, put them on a bus and bring the specialed voting machines to the front doors of the people who need them.

Bullshit arguments (none / 0) (#2)
by AlfredMoisiu on Sat Feb 09, 2008 at 06:59:32 AM EST
I object to touchscreen voting machines in general, not because of some BS arguments about disenfranchising voters, but because frankly, they suck, and will slow down the voting process. The fact that many of the systems are based on Microsoft Access, and are about as secure as an unlocked door doesn't help either.

But New York have been using mechanical DREs for like 50 years. Where has the League of Women been in all of that time? If DRE voting is disenfranchising people and violating the state constitution, why haven't the state courts mandated a replacement in the last 50 years?

You have to draw a line somewhere regarding what will be accomodated and what won't. People object to paper ballots because the ignorant and illiterate can't handle putting an "X" in the box. They object to punch cards because of the whole Florida debacle. People object to internet voting because of security concerns. They don't like anything because people who only speak Urdu can't vote.

IMO, you can't design a single system that will accomodate everyone. A system that will accomodate the blind, non-english speakers, people with twitches who can't fill in circles, people who can't read, etc will become so complex and unwieldy that real security or other flaws that disenfranchise everyone will become an issue.

There has to be a better way. I would have no problem with creating specialized voting machines for specific disabilities. Have braille readers for the blind, etc. Hell, put them on a bus and bring the specialed voting machines to the front doors of the people who need them.

If we cared (none / 0) (#3)
by Tom Paine on Tue Feb 12, 2008 at 01:03:19 PM EST
If we really cared about voting here's a few things we'd do:

a) Make election day a holiday or hold elections on weekends.

b) Eliminate the Electoral College at the Federal level, and go to a national popular vote. There are about a zillion good reasons to do this, but th only one I care about today is: it would give every state a very strong incentive to get out the vote.

c) Launch a project to use open-source software and off-the-shelf hardware to count the votes, all very open, public and easily audited. If we insist on electronic voting, construct the system with all open-source code.

d) Use only paper ballots or our ancient lever machines.

But we don't really care so we aren't going to do any of these things.  

Voting Machines | 3 comments (3 topical, 0 hidden)
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