Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by janrinok on Tuesday February 20 2018, @08:03AM   Printer-friendly
from the newer-is-not-necessarily-better dept.

The Intercept reports

The nation's secretaries of state gathered for a multi-day National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) conference in Washington, D.C., this weekend, with cybersecurity on the mind.

Panels and lectures centered around the integrity of America's election process, with the federal probe into alleged Russian government attempts to penetrate voting systems a frequent topic of discussion.

[...] One way to allay concerns about the integrity of electronic voting machine infrastructure, however, is to simply not use it. Over the past year, a number of states are moving back towards the use of paper ballots or at least requiring a paper trail of votes cast.

For instance, Pennsylvania just moved to require all voting systems to keep a paper record of votes cast. Prior to last year's elections in Virginia, the commonwealth's board of elections voted to decertify paperless voting machines--voters statewide instead voted the old-fashioned way, with paper ballots.

[...] Oregon is one of two states in the country to require its residents to vote by mail, a system that was established via referendum in 1998. [Oregon Secretary of State Dennis] Richardson argued that this old-fashioned system offers some of the best defense there is against cyber interference.

"We're using paper and we're never involved with the Internet. The Internet is not involved at all until there's an announcement by each of our 36 counties to [the capital] Salem of what the results are and then that's done orally and through a confirmation e-mail and the county clerks in each of the counties are very careful to ensure that the numbers that actually are posted are the ones that they have," he said. "Oregon's in a pretty unique situation."

[...] In New Hampshire, the state uses a hybrid system that includes both paper ballots and machines that electronically count paper ballots with a paper trail.

Karen Ladd, the assistant secretary of state for New Hampshire, touted the merits of the system to The Intercept. "We do a lot of recounts, and you can only have a recount with a paper ballot. You can't do a recount with a machine!" she said.

America's paper ballot states may seem antiquated to some, but our neighbors to the north have used paper ballots for federal elections for their entire history. Thanks to an army of officials at 25,000 election stations, the integrity of Canada's elections is never in doubt.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by jmorris on Tuesday February 20 2018, @04:26PM (3 children)

    by jmorris (4844) on Tuesday February 20 2018, @04:26PM (#640708)

    Amazing the levels of ignorance even on sites like this. You can't allow a copy of a ballot, that was a specific design feature introduced to eliminate a specific problem. Do you want to be 'required' to show your 'properly' marked ballot to your employer? Was a time you could bring your own pre-marked ballot to the polling station. And yes that was a problem, lots of people would be handed a premarked ballot and escorted to the polling station. It is like the "free speech" we have today, you can say whatever you want, just don't expect to ever have a job again if you exercise it. Well being fired for voting the 'wrong way' is problem that was solved with the secret ballot. The free speech problem is, for now, only solvable by the same method, anonymous online forums.

    Elections are a solved problem. The United States Army conducted some of the freest and fairest elections in recorded history. Too bad they were in Iraq and Afghanistan where it didn't matter. The problem is free and fair elections are exactly what Democrats most fear breaking out here and they will exert every effort to prevent it.

    No early or mail in voting. Require all voters be registered far enough ahead of the election to have time to challenge fraud. All voters have a difficult to forge photo ID. Place a clear plastic tub on an unadorned table in the center of a room. On election day, all voters are carefully checked against the registration records, then given a paper ballot. Voters fill in the ballot in private then insert them into a slot cut in the top of the clear tub in full view of as many election monitors as candidates, parties and media wish to have present. When they drop the ballot in the tub they stick their finger into the purple ink to prevent voting in another precinct. When the polls close, while maintaining uninterrupted view by the monitors, the tubs are opened and counted. The results are announced and submitted to a central location over a secure link, but since all of the local results are now unchangeable any shenanigans would be quickly unmasked anyway.

    So simple yet so politically impossible. Once you ask why that is you will begin your journey to the red pill view or the world.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +1  
       Troll=1, Insightful=2, Total=3
    Extra 'Insightful' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   3  
  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Gaaark on Tuesday February 20 2018, @07:06PM

    by Gaaark (41) on Tuesday February 20 2018, @07:06PM (#640776) Journal

    Yeeesh, calm the frack down!

    Fine, no copy of ballot! Yoinks!

    Solution, simple. Vote, paper ballot checked, paper ballot deposited in secured bin! Don't get your panties twisted.

    I just suggested electronic plus paper because you Americans seem to need speedy electronic voting and didn't, before, care about security. Do both and you are speedy AND secure for recounts or slower counting for 'true' ballot counts.

    WOW. So simple.

    --
    --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
  • (Score: 3, Touché) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday February 20 2018, @07:14PM

    by DeathMonkey (1380) on Tuesday February 20 2018, @07:14PM (#640778) Journal

    The problem is free and fair elections are exactly what Democrats most fear breaking out here and they will exert every effort to prevent it.

    And when they enlist the aid of a hostile foreign power to fraudulently and illegally launder money into their campaigns and hack the systems of their competitors and the state election commissions maybe you'll finally want to do something about it.

    It'll be too late by then, of course...

  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by bob_super on Tuesday February 20 2018, @10:32PM

    by bob_super (1357) on Tuesday February 20 2018, @10:32PM (#640901)

    You were one stupid unnecessary anti-Democrats swipe from an actually meaningful comment.
    Once anyone proves that a few thousand votes were fake, I'll start wondering whether a giant conspiracy could quietly generate 3 million votes, yet be too stupid to generate them where it matters.