Quick Study: Voting Machines (page 4 of 4)

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The Back-and-Forth

"All you need to rig an electronic voting machine is a memory card and a filing cabinet key or a screwdriver. I know, because I've done it in my lab."
--Edward W. Felten, professor of computer science, Princeton University, and maker of "Diebold Hacked!" video

"A decent-size ballot box holds 10,000 paper ballots, and they don't have to be hacked to be stolen. Paper itself is probably the most insecure voting medium there is."
--Paul Herrnson, director, Center for American Politics and Citizenship, University of Maryland

"The elephant in the room is public perception. There's something inherently reassuring about marking a paper ballot."
--Chris Riggall, spokesman, Diebold, Inc.

"There is no 'best' voting technology. What we have is a 'least bad' technology, and right now that's paper ballots read by optical scanners."
--Avi Rubin, author of Brave New Ballot: The Battle to Safeguard Democracy in the Age of Electronic Voting
From Reader's Digest - June 2008
 
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If it ain't broke---why is it so important to fix it? You enter the voting place. Your voter ID is checked. Then, instead of using a confusing machine and you just keep hitting anything that will let the curtain open and let you out and you don't know if you voted or for whom--- What if the ID checker just handed you a little card or object? You drop it into the slot on top of the box with your candidates name on it. Then, a counting machine can count the number of objects in each box.

By HillbillyBill, on 08/17/2008
To the extent that one issue may be speed --everybody would like to hear the outcome of each election before they go to bed on election night-- I for one would not mind waiting a bit. If an accurate, tamper-proof vote-tallying sustem that the public would have confidence in, somehow required a few days to be completed, I would be willing to wait a few days to learn the outcome.

By MyNotion, on 05/21/2008
I just want my vote to count! I could care less if its computerized or if its on paper.

By bbcookie, on 05/21/2008
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  • In Their Own Words
  • To gauge how today's youth will shape our upcoming election, Reader's Digest commissioned a poll that posed a broad range of questions about the political and personal views of young adults between the ages of 19 and 29.
  • About Our Survey
  • Find out more about how we conducted our poll of young voters in the 2008 election.

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