Saturday, September 20, 2003
Steal this Election?
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is publicizing what, apparently, is an effort by voting machine makers to railroad a voting machine operating standard through the IEEE without any requirement to independently verify the vote count. Further, the EFF says that they have reports of procedural irregularities in governance and membership on the relevant committees aimed at keeping out IEEE members who aren't good ol boys.
This comes on the heels of an August 2003 report of heavy handed behavior by the voting machine industry, which said, in part:
The voting machine industry, the folks who are reported to have kicked the activist experts out of their trade show and railroaded the standard through the IEEE, propose that we trust them to count our votes -- without anybody watching, without anybody able to watch, with no capability even to determine whether the software on a particular voting machine is working as it should be. Brrrrrr.
This comes on the heels of an August 2003 report of heavy handed behavior by the voting machine industry, which said, in part:
"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, [] showcases election systems to elections officials . . .Dr. Mercuri maintains a page on e-voting problems.
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.'
. . .
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."
The voting machine industry, the folks who are reported to have kicked the activist experts out of their trade show and railroaded the standard through the IEEE, propose that we trust them to count our votes -- without anybody watching, without anybody able to watch, with no capability even to determine whether the software on a particular voting machine is working as it should be. Brrrrrr.
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