County Holds Election Testing

[Conveyor Belt]

http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061029/NEWS01/610290314/1002

County to hold election testing
From staff reports

The Forrest County Election Commission will conduct pre-election testing on software logic and accuracy starting Monday and ending Wednesday at the Paul B. Johnson Chancery Building, 641 Main St. The public is invited.

Testing will begin at approximately 8 a.m. each morning. Call (601) 545-6076 for more information.



Anyone who wants to inspect the new voting machines, this is the time and place to do it.

I think they're also planning a public demonstration with a run down on how the machines are set up, etc. I'm not sure about when or if that may be, though. I just heard about it in passing.

[Conveyor Belt]

I'm getting pretty familiar with the Diebold machines.

Personally, I don't understand why these are superior to optical scan machines, save for the immediate vote tabulation.

I'm not sure about the chain of custody after the testing, but I'm sure you could go down and give them a what for about it, just for sh!ts and giggles.

[Scipio]

In Michigan, where I grew up, we had paper ballots. Each candidate's name had a broken arrow next to it. To vote for a particular candidate, you merely had to connect the two parts of the arrow together. This seemed to work quite well. Of course, Michigan has a law requiring proper identification (in the form of a valid government ID or voter registration card) be shown before you vote, and your name and address has to match the rolls before you are given a ballot.

That was a very good system, IMHO. Allowing the voter registration card to serve as identification makes the registrar and not the poll worker the gatekeeper.

An auditable paper trail seems problematic; which is the real record of the vote? How do you trust the paper trail created by a machine that you can't trust anyway? Who is responsible for maintaining the paper records and checking them against the machine records?

[Conveyor Belt]

The way the paper record works in MS is thus:

At the start of the election, a zero totals report is run, which verifies that the machine has no votes cast on it, and this is hung behind the machine. Another zero totals report is run and signed by the poll manager and another poll worker. This copy is drawn up into the canister, which is sealed with a tamper evident seal which is about 4 " in length. As each voter votes, before they cast their ballot, a printout runs under a glass for the voter to verify. The voter verifies that the paper copy is valid by pressing the 'cast vote' option on the machine, which kicks out the voter card, and ends the voting session for that voter.

This goes on througout the day, with each voter viewing who they've voted for,and that vote being drawn up into the secured canister. These canisters and the printer are locked, and it would be pretty evident if anyone was tampering with them, in the way you have to lift the whole cover of the printer housing up, it's pretty conspicuous.

After the polls close, the pollworkers run the closing process on the machines, which includes running three totals reports, one which gets hung on the wall next to the zero total report, one which gets wrapped around the memory card, and one which gets drawn up into the canister, which is sealed unless someone challenges the electronic vote, and a hand count of the canister ballots must be done.

I beleive the canisters are to be held at the courthouse for two years before they are to be destroyed, or stored, but I'm not sure on that point.

To answer the question, how can you trust the paper trail, you simply have to put that in the hand of the voter who will determine the accuracy of the printed record that's filed away against what they've voted for.

I hope I've answered more questions than I've created. I'm happy to answer any questions I can about this subject.

[Conveyor Belt]

diebold tsx

http://www.diebold.com/dieboldes/demos_tsx_pm.asp

The sample voting on this is as close as you can get to the real thing. Very, very realistic to what it's actually like.

[Scipio]

This Time Magazine article should calm fears;

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1552054,00.html

I don't know about that, Hawkeye. On page 2, Congressman Vern Ehlers, who represents my parents' district in Michigan and used to represent me and is one of the few top scientists in the GOP wing of the House, expresses concern about the security of the machines. If Vern is concerned, that's enough for me to be concerned.

Of course, there's a real problem TIME's article did not address; namely, the sociological fact that most poll workers are older Americans, who, while dedicated to the democratic process, are not as technologically aware or savvy as younger Americans, and who have a native distrust of electronics and computers in general.

[Scipio]

I tested the TSX machine set up in the Paul B. Johnson Chancery Building yesterday, and it was really easy to use. I don't have any problems with using the machine to vote, but I'm still not crazy about the count.

[Scipio]

I tested the TSX machine set up in the Paul B. Johnson Chancery Building yesterday, and it was really easy to use. I don't have any problems with using the machine to vote, but I'm still not crazy about the count.
Why? Please expound.

It's a good question. I think that the reason I'm not crazy about it is because I'm not convinced that the poll watchers will be able to convincingly administer the election. The ultimate issue is confidence in the process; if the poll watchers aren't confident in their knowledge, even if their knowledge is right, the vote will be suspect.

[SoMissTV]

WDAM just showed footage of the voting machines being loaded into trucks for distribution to polling site. Given the discussions regarding security with electronic voting, I found some irony in the fact that they used Forrest county inmates to handle the machines.

[Conveyor Belt]

WDAM just showed footage of the voting machines being loaded into trucks for distribution to polling site. Given the discussions regarding security with electronic voting, I found some irony in the fact that they used Forrest county inmates to handle the machines.

The memory cards are not with the machines at this point... machine and memory card will not be united until tomorrow.