Re: California SB 1438

On Thu, 2004-07-15 at 21:58, Nathan L. Adams wrote:
> On Monday 12 July 2004 10:27 am, Joseph Lorenzo Hall wrote:
> > No... the OVC has a piece of paper outputted (and verified) at the
> > time to vote is cast... this is the official record of the vote... the
> > electronic records in the OVC system are for reconcilliation (someone
> > correct me if I'm wrong). -Joe
>
> Yes, I'm aware of the OVC's scheme, and your description of the scheme looks
> correct. I was commenting on the way Douglas worded his definition of a DRE.
>
> On Monday 12 July 2004 11:14 am, Douglas W. Jones wrote:
> > OK, time to refine my definition:
> >
> > The important thing is that the records of votes are stored
> > electronically for some interval before they are printed or
> > otherwise converted to durable human-readable records, and
> > as a result, the voter never has a chance to inspect or
> > approve the human-readable record of his or her vote.
>
> How about this instead:
>
> "The important thing is that the records of votes are stored electronically
> for some interval before they are printed or otherwise converted to durable
> human-readable records IN SUCH A MANNER THAT the voter never has a chance to
> inspect or approve the human-readable record of his or her vote."
>
> The OVC system in fact stores the votes electronically for some interval
> before they are printed; your wording makes it seem like that in itself is
> inherently bad. I think the real point is that the voter never gets to
> inspect & verify their piece of the audit trail in paper form. Also, as Joe
> points out, the OVC paper *is* the legal ballot; in a DRE the electronic copy
> is the legal ballot.
>
> Nathan

I think there is a very important and subtle distinction here. In DRE
systems, the VOTE is stored electronically, and that if a DRE vendor
"bolts on" a printed ballot, that their printed ballot is merely an
"audit" of the electronic storage.

Compare this with OVC's model where the "VOTE" is the printed ballot,
and everything else is audit.

IMHO

James

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Received on Sat Jul 31 23:17:05 2004