[Sosfbay-discuss] [GPCA-MediaComm] [Fwd: no GP ballot at a polling place]

[cls at truffula.sj.ca.us]

>Date: Thu, 07 Feb 2008 10:24:39 -0800
>From: "Bert" <truekahuna at comcast.net>
>User-Agent: Thunderbird 1.5.0.13 (Windows/20070809)
>To: wrolley at charter.net
>References: <47AB45FC.8010303 at charter.net>
>In-Reply-To: <47AB45FC.8010303 at charter.net>
>Cc: Green Discuss <sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org>,
>	GPCA Media Comm <gpca-mediawg at cagreens.org>
>Subject: Re: [Sosfbay-discuss] [GPCA-MediaComm] [Fwd: no GP ballot at a
> polling place]

>Wes,

>You've hit on a perfectly valid argument in favor of touch screens.

>Carrying a little water on this...suppose there were a touch screen 
>system that didn't connect to some game-able network but simply printed 
>out a ballot "with all the little ovals filled in".  So then the voter 
>takes that printed ballot, verifies it by eye, and drops it in a box.

That's Open Voting Consortium's system.

Their ballot printer also prints a cryptographic signature
on the ballot so it can be traced back to the individual
voting machine.  The format is open so true recounts can
be performed using independently developed and maintained
machinery.  Ideally each party or candidate could bring
its own scanner and do its own recount.  This notion
of an electronic voting system that does not require
trustworthy equipment is being called "software independence" 
and I sure wish the "paper trails paper trails paper trails"
zombies would pick up on it.



>I wonder if anybody makes something like that. Better yet, let's form a 
>Green Party company and start making one. Call it our entry into the 
>10KV of electoral capitalism.

OVC staged a successful demonstration in one of the Dem
parties' straw polls this year.

http://www.openvotingconsortium.org/blog/2008-jan-14/open_voting_process_demonstrated_in_san_luis_obispo

One of the hurdles the corporate parties have put up
is it costs a quarter million dollars to get a voting machine
federally certified, and the vendor pays.  Trivial
for Diebold, and it keeps universities and NGOs
from competing with them.


Cameron