Joho the Blog
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April 01, 2004
Here's the next-to-final draft of a commentary that ran on NPR's All Things Considered on Monday. You can listen to it here. I'm double worried about electronic voting machines. First there's the problem that lots of people have noted with the new machines. Instead of marking a box with a pen, you touch the screen to put an electronic mark in an electronic box. Very convenient and results are tabulated instantly, but suppose there's a bug in the computer, or suppose someone hacks into them. How would we even know that the software is miscounting the votes? The most talked-about solution is to have the electronic voting machines also produce a paper copy of your vote so you can compare it with what you touched on screen. The paper copies would be kept secure so they can be counted manually to verify the electronic results...which makes sense to me. But even if all the technical issues are resolved, I'm not going to like voting with the new digital machines. I'm voting because I want to make a difference. A little difference, exactly one person's worth. So I want my vote to make a mark in the world. I want to make a thick X in smelly magic marker ink where there wasn't one before. I want to feel a lever click into place. I want to punch some chads. That's what making your mind up feels like. Touching a computer screen is a little too literally doing my "bit." Of course I don't want Florida to happen again. No one does. And I'm enough of a combination news and computer junkie to want election results within 4 seconds of the polls closing. But I'd be willing to give that up if it meant I could savor my role as a citizen longer. You know, I not only want to make a mark on paper, I want to wait in line at the polls. The line should be long, and not only because that means lots of us are voting. The inconvenience reminds us that voting is worth waiting for. Besides, the line puts in front of me and behind me people who disagree with me. Yet right or wrong, we all get to stand in the same line. No matter how much we disagree about the future direction of our country, everyone in line agrees on this: People who cut in line stink! That's the basis of civil society. And it should be drizzling on election day. And a little cold. Hands in pockets cold, not glove cold. We should be dusting the outside off our coats and stamping it off our feet as we enter the polling place because, although voting is an indoor activity, we should be reminded of the reality of the world outside, especially as voting goes digital. So, yes, I bow before the inevitable. I'll probably be poking my finger at a touch screen and, I hope, checking the results against a paper print out. I may even glance sideways at the screen to see which names have the most accumulated fingerprints next to them. That's how badly I want to know the outcome. But I'm afraid I'm going to feel more like I'm recording information about my vote than actually voting. Casting a ballot is the fundamental, irrevocable act of democracy. I'm voting to have an effect. It'd be nice to be able to feel the effect. Posted
by D. Weinberger at April 1, 2004 12:43 PM
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Comments
Hi Dave,
I really liked your commentary. Except maybe for the cold and drizzly part, as here in Florida it's more likely to be warm and breezy :)
I've used the Florida version of the touch screens in a local election and after voting on one our new machines I had an empty feeling. A where did my vote go feeling.
I really liked dropping the old punch card in the dinged up collection box. After that one experience with the touch screens I decided to switch to Absentee Balloting.
It was very simple, I did the switch over the phone in less than 5 minutes. Now my ballot will be sent to me automatically. An added benefit is I don't have to worry about missing any obscure local elections. And best of all I can take that smelly magic marker and mark up a piece of paper when I vote, on a bright sunny Florida election day :)
Rod
Posted by: Rod K | April 1, 2004 03:06 PM
Was that it? On voting? I couldn't hear it from the sales floor. Thanks. Next time, could you do one on Empedocles?
Posted by: bw | April 1, 2004 10:03 PM
You put into words just what I was feeling (but
couldn't describe) about "E-Voting".
Can't we leave this one area alone and not "modernize" it? Leave us alone w/our ballots, markers and sense of acccomplishment and citizenship that marking a big *X* brings.
You're right---E-Voting is an open invitation
to hackers and the like.
And why weren't printers automatically a consideration? Everyone knows there has to be "a paper trail" as proof...
Thanks!
Posted by: ula | April 3, 2004 07:24 AM
I think we like what we're used to.
In New Jersey, we've had machines forever, so I've never enjoyed the smell of the markers. But I did like the swish of the curtain closing behind me, and then the thunk/swish of the vote being taken and the curtain opening again. The machines are electronic now, and not quite so noisy, but the experience is much the same.
I don't know if election fraud would be easier in an electronic system. With the right intent (and the right connections), we've seen it's not so hard to produce a particular result, even in the lowest of technologies.
Posted by: Chris Riemer | April 3, 2004 08:51 AM
I would have hoped that you would use your prestige qand platform to inform the audience that there is no way that computer-based voting can guarantee proper compilation of the voter's intention. A paper receipt could be generated independently from the link back to the accumulating file. That such programming cannot be found by outside audit has been a matter of record since 1987.
Posted by: Jeff O'Byrne | April 3, 2004 09:43 AM
Jeff, I'm not sure if you're saying that machines that print paper copies can be gamed too. If so, how?
Posted by: David Weinberger | April 3, 2004 10:53 AM
I concur. I have to say there is something about everything you said that makes me feel part of the system. These are all of the things I enjoy about my right to vote. The nostalgia every time I enter the church at the corner of my road, the smell, standing in line hoping I get to one of the chairs soon, the same volunteers giving my little jacket with the card to punch, the little boxes with the pull curtains...the sounds of chads being pressed...the feeling that I have participated in the process. All the way down to the little sticker I wear proudly. And for the past 14 years have thoroughly enjoyed to do, and will continue enjoying to do.
Posted by: Dana Hillier | April 9, 2004 03:37 PM
Recall Jon Katz's brilliant essay, "The Post Political Digital Elite" in Wired say 1995?
It never caught on, but there was enough philosophical substance for me to end the exercise of voting.
The overwhelming majority of registered voters do not pull the lever on statewide or local elections. And even Presidential electioins garner 50% or less.
For the educated and affluent, voting is but a symbol. Our lives will not be fundamentally changed whether Democrat or Republicans are at the helm.
Keep voting "ponderous"? I'll go with the majority and not vote at all.
Cheers from Los Angeles
Posted by: mewcomm | April 9, 2004 04:31 PM
I know that this whole voting process is down right confusing and many highly techy people won't even mess with it, because they don't trust it. I think that us developers should create a program that generates a unique ID for each person and this ID can only be used from the PC they registered from. Then when voting come, they login to that PC with their ID and then vote. If you loose your computer or it crashes, then make it a requirement to request a new key from a new IP.
Thanks!
Darren (www.buildpr.com)
Posted by: Darren D | February 23, 2006 02:21 AM