Voting receipts should also have Tally's on them (I am for paper ballots)

[GingerSnaps]

This example would only be for anything done on a computer or machine.

The receipt is not going to be any good if it's just a receipt. They should be like a deposit receipt.

Example:

Votes for Presidential Candidate

Democrat 1000
Republican 100
Independent 200

Total 1,300

John Doe
Votes
President 1
Senator
Congress


(Each race can be broken down)

Totals
Presidential
Democrat 1,0001
Republican 100
Independent 200

Total 1,3001

State Totals
County Kenowah 1,3001
County BS 1,4007
ETC.

Total 2,7008


Something like this :shrug:

[Eloriel]

1. We don't want a RECEIPT -- we want a voter-verified paper BALLOT

and DON'T forget it!

Seriously, this is important. We want a BALLOT, one that's left at the polling place and is capable of being used both in audits AND RECOUNTS.

A paper "receipt" gets you nowhere with recounts. In fact, in Georgia, where I live, our legislature made the only legal vote the ELECTRONIC vote. So perhaps you can see the importance of having the paper printout referred to in the LEGAL terms everyone can understand: PAPER BALLOT, and of starting to do the hard work of getting state laws changed so that idiocies like this GA law are overturned.

Further, when you say VOTER VERIFIED PAPER BALLOT, every lay person starts to get it, straightaway, that what they DON'T have now is any proof of how they voted, no way to recount, no way to prove or disprove who really won, and whether there was fraud or not.

[Lex]

3. Why not BOTH? Each vote generates a ballot &

a copy of the ballot for the voter.

Most times at restaurants and other places where you pay, you get one copy of the receipt for the business and one copy for yourself.

Why not with votes?

[greenohio]

6. Trust me, you don't want software programmers anywhere near your vote.

Paper ballot
Paper ballot
Paper ballot

[loyalsister]

11. Some people do

People who are physically incapable of using paper deserve the same privacy for voting that everyone else has. There's a way to make this work.
The paper ballot receipt idea above sounds like a great idea to me.

[greenohio]

12. Black box ,baby.

It may be easier to use, but it doesn't matter when your vote goes off into cyberspace.

Use the computer to make the paper ballot if you have to, but in the end, the paper ballot (counted at the precinct, on video tape, with representatives of each candidate present) is the only way to stop repukes from stealing elections.

[loyalsister]

13. Easier??????????????

I'm talking about people who are blind or have no hand mobility.
Voting is a right for everyone! If the technology is available for each of us to cast a private vote and we aren't using it, our votes are a joke.
In the end paper can be burned, shredded, etc. It's not infallable.
The electronic + paper seems like a reasonable solution.

[greenohio]

14. Only if the paper is what is counted.

Looks, the VAST majority of voters, vote by themselves. Really. Have one machine only available to those who are incapable using a pen and paper. Have it print the ballot, not keep any electronic records.

Then count the paper at the precinct after the polls close.

[loyalsister]

15. The majority is what counts

Ask any minority.

[GingerSnaps]

5. I don't want any more machines either

We need to do a massive destruction where the country could all help break the machines. I don't want the machines that we get rid of to be recycled and sent to a foreign country either.

With paper ballots they should make them so that you can't erase anything on them.

I am with you on the paper ballets.

[aka-chmeee]

9. Total Agreement

I don't see any need to have the winner announced the same day or even the same month as the election.
NO machine assisted vote tampering at all! I'm not a big time programmer but if my source code was proprietary and unchecked I could make the election go however I wanted. I'm not sure it would matter if the code was audited, if you've ever inspected someone else's source code, it seem's almost impossible to me to determine just what the hell they're up to. Read the comments? Sure! But if you wish to dissemble, comments can just make it harder.
Again, just my 'umble opinion, but, Paper ballots, manual counts with representives from all interested parties present to observe the process. It's important- take the time it requires to do it right.

[Skip Intro]

2. No, you should leave the reciept at the polling place

Well, leave the carbon copy, like you do when you purchace something with a credit card - you get a copy and the store gets a copy. Might not be a bad idea to sign it as well.

The copy you leave goes directly into a ballot box, placed there by you, after you exit the booth

The reciept would have markings that indicated it came from the machine - a time stamp, maybe - and you drop it into the box, verified by a watcher that it matches the polling place "id stamp" like every other voter. The stamp would be on the outside, so that the poll watcher/worker couldn't see your vote.

That way you have a copy, stamped and verified, and there is a paper trail that should match the machine vote exactly.

Long story short, you vote, machine prints reciept, you verify reciept matches your vote, reciept goes into box (keep your copy) and after the voting is over, there is a machine count, and a paper "backup" count.

I figured that's what we were talking about all along.

---

on edit: sorry, the tally idea is a good one. another safeguard. I skpped right over that.

[Starlight]

4. You know what else I'd like to see?

If a voter wants to skip voting for anyone for a particular office or issue, there should be a spot to choose "none" or "no vote." Too many times I've heard election officials claim thousands of people came in & signed the book & went into the voting booth, but didn't choose to vote on the major issues...or at all.

[rfkrfk]

7. Ticket splitters

Ticket splitters, interested in a few races,
won't like the idea of being
forced to make 247 indications of
'none of the above'.
Ballots are too long, btw.

[GingerSnaps]

8. I think that we had to vote for several hundred judges in my area

At least it felt like it. There were pages and pages of judges and I didn't know anything about them.

We didn't have books around to explain their positions on subjects that relates to the courts that they work for.

I didn't want to leave the ballot half empty and taking the chance of having it being rejected so I had to guess at who to vote for.

Most of the names were Irish which I found kind of funny. It was like should I vote for McDonald or McDonnell. :shrug:

[Starlight]

10. That doesn't really surprise me...

but I AM surprised at how many voters are reported to have skipped voting for president. Did they really mean to skip it? Was their vote missed or not counted for some reason? Did the voting machine malfunction? I started thinking about this after Randi Rhodes reported that a large number of voters in FL went in for a special election - only one thing on the ballot - and were reported to have not voted on that one thing. So why did they show up at the polling place, sign the book & enter the booth if they weren't going to vote? :shrug: It's possible that they were staging a protest of some sort, I suppose, but it certainly does seem strange.