Computer Voting Expert Ousted From Elections Conference

www.EcoTalk.org ^ | Lynn Landes, freelance journalist

[webber]

Computer Voting Expert Ousted From Elections Conference

Lynn Landes
freelance journalist
www.EcoTalk.org

Denver CO - Dr. Rebecca Mercuri, a leading expert in voting machine security, had her conference credentials revoked by the president of the International Association of Clerks, Records, Election Officials, and Treasurers (IACREOT), Marianne Rickenbach. The annual IACREOT Conference and Trade Show, which showcases election systems to elections officials, is being held at the Adam's Mark Hotel in Denver all this week.

Mercuri believes that her credentials were revoked because of her position in favor of voter-verified paper ballots for computerized election systems. "I guess in a very troubling way it makes sense that an organization like IACREOT, that supports paperless computerized voting systems, which are secret by their very design, would not want computer experts who disagree with that position at their meetings."

Dr. Mercuri said that her credentials were approved for the first three days of the conference. She attended meetings of other groups and visited the exhibitors hall. But it was only on Thursday as she sat down to attend her first meeting at the IACREOT that President Marianne Rickenbach took Mercuri out of the room and told her that her credentials were being revoked. Rickenbach said that Mercuri had not filled out the forms correctly.

Mercuri protested, but was refused reinstatement.

David Chaum, the inventor of eCash and a member of Mercuri's 'voter-verified paper ballot' group, had his credentials revoked on the first day of the conference. On the second day his credentials were partially restored. Chaum was allowed to visit the exhibitors hall, but not attend the IACREOT meetings.

Rickenbach was unavailable for comment as of this report. Mercuri can be reached at the Adam's Mark Hotel through Saturday.

[malia]

for later

[Drango]

EcoTalk?????

[lelio]

What's scary about that story is that the Diebold machines use Microsoft Access to store the votes.

[lelio]

Yikes! Click on "next story" and you'll get this gem and you'll read about Stargate and UFOs. Here's a glimpse:

KNOW WHO YOU ARE AND HAVE NO FEAR. Without FEAR the Negative alien beings cannot harm you. It will be your only defense against them. Guns will hurt them, but they vibrate at lower 4-d levels and can read your mind and outthink you.

Don't they know about tin foil hats?

[martin_fierro]

What we need now is an online poll to decide whether she should've been ousted or not. <|:/~

[Freedom4US]

I gave a little thought about computerized voting and came to the conclusion that a "receipt" was a great idea. But then somebody pointed out that one of the reasons a secret ballot is important - proof of how one voted could be used to buy people's vote, something that hadn't ocurred to me, cuz I'm not a crook, I guess.

[Cacophonous]

That's it. Shoot the messenger.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

The Raelians! Classic!

[FReepaholic]

>>...I gave a little thought about computerized voting and came to the conclusion that a "receipt" was a great idea. But then somebody pointed out that one of the reasons a secret ballot is important - proof of how one voted could be used to buy people's vote...<<

I'd like to see some method of confirmation that my selections were processed by the computer correctly.

In my county, we still put black marks on paper ballots but then insert the ballot into a machine that processes the selections.

It would be nice if then I was presented a screen or something with my vote choices and I had to sign or input my voter number, to verify that the computer got it right.

[KriegerGeist]

Who Counts The Votes?

Those slick new touch screen voting machines promise to get rid of hanging chads forever. But how do you know your vote was recorded as you intended? You might as well be handing it to a stranger who promises to deliver it to the polling place unchanged.

Maybe you thought that some computer wizard worked out some way to record those votes without errors. If so, you've been duped! Voting machines are just as subject to program bugs as other computers, and very tempting for computer hackers. Indeed, from the viewpoint of secure computing, voting is a uniquely hard problem: harder than flying airplanes, and harder than electronic banking.

This is why hundreds of computer experts, including many of the top experts in the world on electronic voting and computer security have signed our "Resolution on Electronic Voting," which calls for a "Voter Verifiable Audit Trail" that can be recounted by hand to check that the machines have recorded the votes properly. Almost no touch-screen machines have them, but there are many systems that do. For example, optical scan ballots (like standardized tests) that are scanned at the polling place are inexpensive and excellent for most voters, and the marked ballots are the "voter verifiable audit trail."

Alternatively, touch-screen machines can be modified so that they print a copy of the ballot, which the voter can check for accuracy. That printed ballot is deposited in a locked ballot box in case a recount is requested.

Link To VerifiedVoting.org

[SES1066]

I gave a little thought about computerized voting and came to the conclusion that a "receipt" was a great idea. But then somebody pointed out that one of the reasons a secret ballot is important - proof of how one voted could be used to buy people's vote, ...

Valid point but not a show-stopper. You could have lock-box dropped receits for use in a disputed recount. I would prefer that to having no 'audit' trail other than an electronic one. I have worked too long and debugged too much to EVER have ABSOLUTE faith in such a system. Even when there is no possible deleterious motive, these computer systems can get bolixed, Given the potential for abuse in elections - NO BETS!

I would like to have about as many safeguards as there are in the Federal Reserve wire transfer system and then be paranoid enough to add some. The problem is that an election system is a make-shift, temporary low-priority item EXCEPT when it isn't (grin). Speaking as a resident of Florida, I have NO DESIRE to have any Supreme Court deciding an election of mine ever again.

This is a very NON-TRIVIAL problem that is still searching for a solution. I don't like chad, but neither do I like buzzy the electron much better at the moment.

[Jay D. Dyson]

As many of us who work in computer and network security can attest, most people honestly don't want security; they just want to be happy neurotics.

Mercuri (the irresistible force) met bureaucratic stagnation (the immovable object). As a consequence, the security of electronic voting will suffer even more than it already has.

Used to be only the dead were forced to vote Democrat. Now, thanks to the lack of security in the new system, we ALL will meet that same fate.

-Jay

[freekitty]

You mean she is helping to make the election fair and honest.

I think America should watch Hitlery to make sure that she doesn't steal the election because she will.

[lelio]

How about instead of a printed receipt of your vote that your union boss could demand to see, you get a random unique ID printed out (maybe one ID, or maybe one ID per race).
If there's ever a contested election the newspapers can print a list of the IDs that each candidate received. Since its a random id you can't trace down voting blocks per neighborhood or time of voting. I suppose if the people in the voting area saw your id they could finger you.
Course this doesn't stop people from claiming the dogcatcher election was rigged and then comparing those results to your id.

[4mycountry]

Don't they know about tin foil hats?

Hmmm? What? Pardon?

[comnet]

International Association of Clerks, Records, Election Officials, and Treasurers (IACREOT), Marianne Rickenbach

A N.G.O of the U.N

[steplock]

To ALL you Tin-Foil-Hats accusers:

Look up the "International Association of....." and see what you find. Check the out and you will find ALL linking back to....

GOOGLE SEARCH RESULTS Results 1 - 10 of about 639,000.

The UNITED NATIONS!

Before your NEXT tin-foil barrage...

The International Association of Municipal Clerks (another UN group) boast a membership of almost 100% of municipal clerks of the United States.

So?? Did I forget to mention WHO was pushing for these electronic - 100% untraceable and therefore UNVERIFIABLE - voting systems?

And do you know WHO are the lead characters in this electronic voting software? Have you heard of ARTHUR ANDERSON? of ENRON infamy??

Arthur Anderson to Run Arkansas Elections - Monday, June 09, 2003

THEN look up the election troubles brought on by "last minute discoveries" of missing ballots from the electronic election in Kansas City! Kansas City 1 Channel - Election Confusion Affects Missouri

Don't be shy - USE GOOGLE for any and all - if your brain functions at all anymore after all your knee-jerk accusations.

[4mycountry]

Ok, buddy, time to take your valium...

[Revel]

There are a few people here that get it. Saddly not enough to make a difference. Many are not technically minded. Some just don't think anyone is going to want to cheat...and a few have so much faith in technology that they actually believe the system can be set up so that no one can cheat.
The end result will be that those who oppose electronic voting will be laughed at and the day will come when the results of elections are pre-decided. Going to the polls will be nothing more than a ruge.