TomPaine.com
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/03/23/dissing_diebold.php
Diebold, dubbed an "e-voting recidivist " by the Electronic Frontier
Foundation, may soon be blocked from operating their voting machines in
Maryland. Two weeks ago, the Maryland House of Delegates voted
overwhelmingly to require paper ballots—not electronic voting
machines—be used in this year's elections. The Maryland Senate will
consider the measure any day now.
Even Maryland's very Republican governor, Robert Erhlich, has publicly
expressed his concern about the integrity of Diebold's e-voting
technology. As he should. Today, in an editorial, The New York Times
urges the Maryland Senate to support the bill. The Times
described why opposition is growing in Maryland to Diebold's technology:
Maryland was one of the first states to embrace
Diebold. But Maryland voters and elected officials have grown
increasingly disenchanted as evidence has mounted that the machines
cannot be trusted. In 2004, security experts from RABA Technologies
told the state legislature that they had been able to hack into the
machines in a way that would make it possible to steal an election.
Senator Barbara Mikulski, a Democrat, informed the State Board of
Elections in 2004 that voters had complained to her that machines had
mysteriously omitted the Senate race.
Last week, Kevin Zeese—founder of the nation's leading citizen groups
working to end paperless electronic voting—explained why Maryland's
move is significant to the rest of the country:
Maryland is of national interest because [Maryland
State Election Administrator Linda] Lamone is the President of the
National Association of State Election Directors (NASED) and the most
vociferous advocate for paperless voting in the United States. John
Gideon Information Manager of VoteTrustUSA.org says “NASED presently
controls all federal voting systems qualifications. They control the
panel that reviews the testing results from the Independent Test
Authorities and because of that they control who gets qualified and who
doesn't.” Indeed, unless Maryland passes legislation immediately, it
will be the only state to use a statewide paperless Diebold system as
Georgia, the other statewide paperless state, has announced it is
changing its system.
Writing for TomPaine.com recently, e-voting expert David Dill argued
that requiring paper records is one of the best immediate fixes to the
nation's voting problems:
Right now, the only feasible solution to the
insecurity of electronic voting is a universal requirement for
voter-verified paper records of all ballots (VVPR). We also need to
pass laws that enable candidates to obtain manual recounts easily and
inexpensively. There is now a national movement to make sure this
technology is used, and it’s winning, slowly but surely.
Maryland's likely conversion is a sign that the momentum is building.
But paper ballots are not without problems. Today's reports out of
Illinois show that its system of electronic voting machines and paper
ballots caused numerous election-day glitches in Cook County.* As I
understand it, Cook County has in place the very system Maryland is
moving toward and which is widely supported by election reform
advocates. Cook County's problems are understandably arousingsuspicion.
They also serve as a reminder that to restore people's trust in the
complexity of America's electoral process, election reform must be
comprehensive. A paper trail is important, but so, too, is moving
forward on other major reforms. Dill outlined four aspects of the
election process that require major changes:
I propose a four part solution: We need to ensure
that voting technology is transparent; election procedures need to be
rethought to emphasize openness, security and checks and balances;
election laws need to be revised to support these points and to make it
easy for candidates to get reliable, manual recounts; finally, citizens
need to participate in witnessing elections and making sure they are
conducted properly.
E-voting was an attempt to fix the "hanging chads" that plagued us in
2000. Paper trails provide a remedy for the widely distrusted and
insecure e-voting systems in use in 2004. But improving this essential
element of American democracy means doing more than merely responding
to the last election's problems. |
