Open voting: Our Democracy Rests Upon This Question [View All]

[Pobeka]

Introduction
Since the inception of democratic societies, the right of "one person, one vote" has been recognized as the
most basic process needed to allow equal participation by the people. One person, one vote is also depends
on a voting system that minimizes the chance of votes being inaccurately counted, or fraudulently cast,
or fraudulently changed by officials with neferious motives after the vote was cast.

The quickest way to count votes is using automated methods. There is no question about that. But speed
is the least important aspect of vote counting if that speed makes it possible for fraud to exist. If we
wanted speed, we could count only 1 vote in a 100. That would certainly be faster. Do you want to be one
of the other 99? -- no, nobody does. A desire for faster counting must not comprimise the intent of the voter.


Our Democracy Rests Upon This Question

If you did not see with your own eyes the physical ballot with your vote on it go into the certified ballot box,
how do you personally know that your vote would not be changed? If it was an electronic vote, it could be
changed. Do you trust a computer programmer who says his program is trustworthy? Virtually all
programmers don't trust computers enough to rest our democracy on that clandestine technology. Programmers know
that even the most extensively reviewed programs still have a chance of having an error, and that the hardware
the programs depend on also have errors. How do you audit a vote incorrectly tallied by program which has an
error causing your vote to be incorrectly cast? -- you cannot. There is no way to see how the program changed
your vote, because computers transfer information from one part to another using electrons, and those electrons
are long gone when it comes time for an audit. How do you know the programmer did not create a program designed
to fool everyone during the election, and erase it's own neferious parts as it shuts itself down? You will not
know as you stare into the face of the monitor, and neither can your election officials, they are not computer
specialists either. Even a computer specialist staring into the face of a monitor of a computer-only based
system has no way of knowing if the votes are being tallied properly, either due to unintential errors or
intentional fraud.


Safeguarding Your Vote

Your vote, to be safeguarded, needs to be permanently recorded on a piece of paper, birch bark, piece of metal,
something, anything that is a permanent physical ballot. You look at that ballot, and know that your choice
is immediately obvious to anyone who later looks at that ballot, either to count your vote, or to undertake
an audit of an automated vote counting system which is being challenged.

What can you do?

If you care about your vote, then you need to demand "voter verified paper ballot" systems from your legislator. Goto

http://www.blackboxvoting.org/

for more information on how to get involved.

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On edit, changed *anything* to anything