Voter Verification on electronic ballots

[azurelunatic]

MoveOn.org has a petition project going for voter-verified paper ballots for electronic voting machines. Whichever side of the United States political issues you are on, note that electronic voting with closed-source software made by an organization with political preferences is not generally worthy of trust.

My addition to the canned petition text is as follows:

As an Information Technology student nearing graduation, I have had ample experience with computers and how they can go horribly wrong. I do not trust electronic voting machines, especially ones that have not laid all their code bare so that I may inspect it and verify that there are no errors that I can find that will cause my vote to go astray. I do not trust closed-source software with the future of my country, and neither should you.

Maybe I'm a reactionary, but I don't trust untested electronics without backups their first time out. Just -- no. Especially not with all the rumblings I've heard around about the machines and the company and political agendas. If candidates that I do not favor get elected, I'd rather it be fair and square without the pall of doubt cast by machines that may or may not have been compromised or even working right to start with.

[Edit: do correct me if I'm wrong, but I think I'm right in saying that the software for these things is not being shown to the public?]

Comments

[nilo.livejournal.com]

Hell, I don't trust politicians without backup, so I agree with you.

Hey, I know you're originally from up north. What area? The Captain now has a chance of being relocated to Fort Wainwright - by Fairbanks.

I'm not sure a judge would agree to let me move up there with Emmy...

*sigh*

[azurelunatic]

HOME!

Fairbanks is home, yes. Mmmm, home.

I'll be visiting there this July...

[nilo.livejournal.com]

So you liked it?

Pros?

Cons?

I've only ever been to Ketchikan, Alaska...

[crisavec.livejournal.com]

You are correct in that they aren't letting anyone see the code, and most vendors are actively trying to prevent anyone from seeing it be declaring it a trade secret or any other means they can to keep it under wraps. Combine this with public statements by the CEO of Diebold(one of the major Electronic Voting machine vendors, and who's hardware was recently banned in california after several foulups in the last election) that he'd "Deliver Ohio to the President" in the next election....bad things.
Makes me glad for the scantron style machines up here.

[azurelunatic]

Pros: Beautiful summers, lovely winters, good schools, few "snow days", good teachers, a very active small-town school district, an excellent library, swimming pools, sports, a world-renowned symphony orchestra where you can attend in bunny boots and Carharts, a good university with plenty of real research going on, wildlife, the aurora borealis, wild roses, birch trees, spruce trees, aspen trees.

Cons: Cost of living, temperature in the winter, amount of snow (up to three feet), lack of pop culture (this can also be a pro), occasional lack of plumbing in the cheaper-rent out-of-town residences, moose as public nuisance, red squirrels as public nuisance, wind chill (not so bad in the hills in Fairbanks proper, but down his way, worse), darkness, major medical procedures (such as many operations) taking place in Seattle, bad public transportation, yellow jacket hornets, ice fog, thermal inversions causing air quality alerts for violation of carbon monoxide standards four times a year in the winter (never in summer).

Summer weather: 80 is hot. 60 is average. Rainy season in July/August. Frost in September. Breakup in April/May. Roses at the end of May/start of June.

Winter weather: 20 is warm. 0 is typical. -10 is also typical. -20 is too cold for outside recess. -40 is where propane kept outside gets too cold to flow. -50 is either school out or attendance optional. -60, definitely no school. '89 was the last time I think it hit -60 when I was there. A large snowfall will give you 3 inches. Black ice with a slight dusting of snow on top is the most dangerous. Studded snow tires are supposed to come off May 01. Shovel, sand/kitty litter and chains must be in trunk of car during winter by law of common sense. A down jacket is a serious investment but worth it.

[azurelunatic]

Also: it's a dry cold.

[azurelunatic]

I never had any problems with those machines. Very simple, and easy to use for the younger generation who grew up on those goddamn tests.

[nilo.livejournal.com]

Thank you SO much, Joan.

[azurelunatic]

Ohhhh, and Summer Fine Arts Camp for kids, and also stuff for the space-crazed organized by UAF's Geophysical Institute, and...

And the Midnight Sun Run, and the way sunset doesn't start until 10 in the summer, and dawn's 4 or so, and sunset/twilight/sunrise lasts all night... and Hot Licks (mm, ice cream, comparable to Ben & Jerry's only local)...

Con: mosquitoes.

[azurelunatic]

Welcome.

As you can see, I have perhaps an overload of information on the topic.

[azurelunatic]

Few domestic pests such as silverfish/cockroaches, as they cannot survive the outdoor weather. There are some in some places, but once they're not in somewhere, they stay not in there unless imported again.

Sadly, the basement of the UAF gym complex does have silverfish. Avoid the College Inn also for the clientele and wildlife.

Little to no gang activity (this may have changed?), and I'm not qualified to speak on race relations. It is very much a monoculture, though around the university things may be changing with grad students from all over coming in.

Oh, and did I mention the cross-country and downhill ski facilities?

[sionainn.livejournal.com]

You should post this comment in alaskans.

:-)

[ldy.livejournal.com]

On a related note...

http://homepage.mac.com/rcareaga/diebold/adworks.htm

[azurelunatic]

So I should.

[azurelunatic]

Those are both politically incorrect and hysterically funny!

[intheblacklodge.livejournal.com]

I don't trust closed source software for anything personally.

[azurelunatic]

Heh. Don't blame you.

I'm not quite yet 1337 enough to want to read the source code of everything I use, but I prefer knowing that if I wanted to, I could.

[thette.livejournal.com]

Oh, my. Home. I want to go home.

[azurelunatic]

This is home?

[thette.livejournal.com]

Close to it. Northener myself.

[azurelunatic]

Climate unites across cultures...

[thette.livejournal.com]

I'll probably write something akin to this myself.

Unfortunately, it'll make me want to go home.