Re: Ballot Validation and voting machine initializtion

I have an innate suspicion of using a smart card that contains the voter ID. It could be used to undermine the secret ballot.

--
Kurt 
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-------------- Original message from Jim March <jmarch@prodigy.net>: -------------- 
> Ed Kennedy wrote: 
> 
> > Hello Ken: 
> > 
> > I have come to believe that we do need intelligent tokens to initiate 
> > voting machines (surprise Arthur!). The purpose of these tokens woud 
> > be several fold. 
> > 
> > The biggest issue is how does one initialize a voting machine for each 
> > voter. Diebold and I suspect others handled this by using an 
> > intelligent token that the voter inserted into the machine to start it 
> > up for each voter. I know we went round and round about that last 
> > winter and spring and came with at least 5 different methods that had 
> > issues around each one. Since I've been a poll worker I've changed my 
> > mind. 
> > 
> > To handle primary elections where voters must vote by party. They 
> > would declare their party preference to the poll worker at the index 
> > who would generate the proper token. 
> 
> 
> Ummm...couple comments here. 
> 
> In the voter registration data collected by the SecState's office, party 
> affiliation is listed. They can output Comma Separated Values data to 
> the county, which your system then imports. 
> 
> The volume of data is small enough that every voting machine can have 
> the whole set. That means there's really no problem at all with people 
> voting at ANY precinct(!) because once they identify themselves to the 
> system, it "knows" where they live and what party they are, and can 
> present the ballot accordingly. 
> 
> The only remaining issue is "how do they identify themselves"? 
> 
> Avante's answer is a sixteen digit alphanumeric code for each voter. 
> They use the first eight digits to ID the human, the next eight to ID 
> the ballot style used (I think two or three of those digits is a county 
> ID unique in the nation). This code is on a "dumb card" that's very 
> tough and flexible. Once ANY of the systems records a voter with that 
> number as having voted at a specific time, when the totals are all piled 
> up, any duplicates result in a flag and all subsequent after the first 
> get tossed...copying an ID card doesn't allow fraud. 
> 
> But...we should remember that Avante was using such cards to ID people 
> coming in and out of buildings and trade shows. Their voting system was 
> originally an attempt to find a new use for the cards . So they 
> were biased towards using said cards and hence we can't assume that's 
> the only way to skin this cat. 
> 
> However. They did prove that a "dumb token" can be used to ID voters. 
> And in their scheme, inserting the card cannot insert extranous data or 
> program files. In the Diebold touchscreens, the "smart cards" have 128k 
> RAM on board of which only 4k - 8k is needed for "voter ID" - the rest 
> is full of God only knows what. I cannot recommend highly enough y'all 
> do NOT do like that, or you'll have me outside your office doors 
> protesting yer arses :). 
> 
> Jim 
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Received on Fri Dec 31 23:17:12 2004