What have Dems done about paper trails for touch-screen voting?

[ladeuxiemevoiture]

Is there anything being done about requiring paper confirmations?

[CaliTeacher]

1. Well in California...

I went to the Diebold certification hearings, and they said the new machines here would have a voter verifiable paper record kept behind a plastic window. The downside is that the record is on a scroll, so it's sequential and you could conceivably figure out who cast which vote. So much for anonymity. The real problem is that the software is still proprietary, so you don't know if the votes are really getting counted in the first place. A paper trail only helps if you actually get a recount, and recent history is not very encouraging on that front.

[ladeuxiemevoiture]

3. True, but I suppose something is better than nothing

as far as actually having a paper trail.

[CaliTeacher]

2. Also...

...there was no paper trail for voters with disabilities.

[flpoljunkie]

5. Exactly, using touchscreen machines is faith based voting. Also, random

mandatory recounts of the paper trail are required in each election--to verify that what is being reported to and out of the "mother computer" is the actual count.

[thereismore]

4. every state that allows voting by mail has a paper trail. Trouble is,

people will not use it. They will vote on the election day. I would really like to see a summary of laws passed by states or in the works.
Anyone?

[flpoljunkie]

6. Recommendations from Dr. Wallach at recent Carter-Baker FER Hearings

Recommendations from Dr. Dan Wallach:

-Paperless DRE systems are insecure
-Many documented vulnerabilities
-Ballots should be on paper
-Electronic records are too fragile

-Best voting system today:
precinct-based optical scan

-ID cards are the tip of an iceberg
-Networked registration systems need additional study

http://www.american.edu/ia/cfer/0630test/wallach.pdf

Dan Wallach is an associate professor at Rice University in the department of computer science, and also manages Rice's computer security lab. His research focuses on computer security and other areas of computer systems, such as wireless systems and secure software systems for the Internet. Dr. Wallach's pioneering efforts led to the development and standardization of the "stack inspection" security model, now used by Sun, Microsoft, and many other systems. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. from Princeton University.

[Ysolde]

8. And it's so funny...

we've had precinct-based optical scan in OK (of all places) for as long as I can remember (I've been voting since 1982). It still has problems in that the central tabulating computer can easily be tampered with, but random recounts could easily catch that. So why do we need something else?

[MaineDem]

7. You'll be hearing more about this from the DNC

The State Party leadership is talking about this.

In Maine, by the way, it's against state law to have a voting machine WITHOUT a verifiable paper backup. This was passed by our Democratic majority legislature last term.