DE Reactions to Stalled Verifiable Voting Proposal

[cyberpj]

Verifiable voting proposal on hold
If bill had passed, state would be in a 'nightmare'
By PATRICK JACKSON, The News Journal
Posted Sunday, September 9, 2007

snip -
"I support the concept," said (Mike) Castle, who received heavy constituent mail in favor of it. "Verifiable paper trails are a good idea ... But I think there were problems with this bill's timing and cost that made it unworkable."

Delaware is one of six states that runs completely paperless elections. Had Holt's bill moved forward, the First State would have had to scramble to modify its voting machines in time for the 2008 general election -- a move election officials estimate could have cost about $1.5 million.

snip -
In a letter sent to members of Congress before Holt's bill was pulled, state Rep. Donna Stone, R-Dover South, said she viewed the legislation as a potentially costly intrusion on the way states conduct their affairs. Stone, president of the National Conference of State Legislatures, said the national bill for Holt's proposal could have run as high as $2 billion by 2012 -- the year all 50 states would have been forced to comply.

Poster's Note: What is that? About 10 days of Iraq War costs? To create a Nation-wide verifiable election system? Right. Too costly for such a trivial activity.

snip -
Holt told the Associated Press that under his bill only six states -- Delaware, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, South Carolina and Tennessee -- which had no voter-verified paper ballot in 2006, would have to upgrade all their voting machines by 2008. Another 14 states would need partial changes.

snip-
"In Delaware, the parties got together, talked and came up with a system that works ... You hear very few complaints, if any, about elections here," he said. "It makes you wonder if the voting machines or the political machines are the problems in other places."


NOTE: Delaware Online Comment:
Posted by: V. Kurt Bellman- Tue Sep 11, 2007 10:29 am
It is important not to unfairly paint Delaware's electronic voting machines with the deserved bad reputation of Diebold, AVS, ES&S, Sequoia Edge and Hart Direct Recording Electronic systems.

Delaware uses the Danaher ELECTronic 1242-6T, a machine that has performed flawlessly in Delaware, and aside from a few human programming error "cause completely identified" problems, nationwide as well. (A cartridge reading error due to incorrect computer set-up in Ohio and a human error in cartridge programming in Pennsylvania.)

No Danaher has EVER had an election database "cracked" by a hacker, unlike the above-named systems. No Danaher has ever had vote flips. No Danaher has ever had unexplained undervote rates. Danhers do not use touchscreens, do not use ANY kind of networking, wireless or otherwise, and are based on 1982-vintage electronic technology. (No volatile ROMs. no flash memory, no "off the shelf" form factor memory cards or devices employed, and no unexplained memory card slots inside. All the other systems above have these.)

No Finnish computer experts, or from anywhere else, like HARVARD (Dr. Mercuri), or STANFORD (Drs. Dill or Rubin) have EVER hacked a Danaher 1242.

In short, the problems affecting electronic voting systems nationwide to NOT apply to Delaware's system, which is used also in much of populous eastern Pennsylvania as well.

It is ridiculous to throw out millions invested in this good system just because other vendors couldn't get theirs right.

[petepillow]

1. It's true that nothing too seemingly weird has happened here election-wise

But it does pretty much feel like I tossed a grain of sand in the ocean and called it a vote.

You touch a screen. Choice lights up. Hit the enter. Lights go out. The end. There is NO WAY to tell that the vote was counted, no confirmation of your choice, not even a click to assure you that something even happened. It just shuts off. If they wanted to fix elections in Delaware it would be about the easiest thing and no one could possibly prove it.

I always walk out of the voting booth feeling uneasy and strangely unfulfilled. (And not just because of the choices...;-) )

[jberryhill]

2. "I always walk out of the voting booth feeling uneasy and strangely unfulfilled. "

Tap your foot while you're in there....

...you never know.