How To Avoid Voting Machine Rigging At The Polls

[tonekat]

Not an original idea, I saw it posted on the Wash Post message boards in response to a thread on Voting Machine irregularities, which has been well documented here already.

The person who posted this idea said he became a "permanent absentee voter" some years ago. Absentee voters fill out paper ballots, so there's no hanky panky with "back door" alterations of computers, etc.

There is no perfect secure system, but this certainly sounds like a viable alternative if you don't trust DieBold, etc. to record votes accurately.

[montanacowboy]

1. Mostly absentee

ballots are not counted unless it is a very close election

[bigendian]

2. excuse me

all votes are to be counted.

But you're kidding, right?

[tonekat]

3. huh?

Well, if Bush gets re-elected, ballots may be outlawed, maybe that's the point.

[ShimokitaJer]

4. absentee ballots didn't guarantee fairness in Florida 2000

or don't you remember the "ballot stuffing" of military absentee ballots for Bush that were counted despite being late, unsigned, incomplete, or otherwise flawed. Or the boxes of absentee ballots found stored away, uncounted, in a back room at the elections board. As long as partisans are in charge of the polls, you're going to have fraud.

[SadEagle]

5. absentees have other problems

They open the door for voter coercion.

[RedEagle]

6. Absentee a Panacea- to a point

Absentee at least leaves a paper trail. Authentication issues, but harder to rig on a national scale.

However, many of the voting irregularities are being found in the optical scan machines.

They can be rigged, too.

If you don't hand count the votes, you don't know.

Paper ballot- yes

Rigorous audits- YES!