Why Is Delaware Risking Faulty Elections?
I was thrilled last spring to move to a Blue state. Still am, except for one major deficiency here. Our voting machine systems. Most of the rest of the free world, at least here in the good old U.S. of A., has discovered the flaws and huge risks present with DRE voting machines.
Risk one here is the complete absence of a voter verifiable paper trail with our ancient Danaher 1242 DRE system. Further risk, the inability to have a verifiable recount. Should we have a squeaker election like the recent AG race in Virginia, we and the candidates would be screwed. What you get out of a DRE system is a REPRINT, not a recount. Thus, a recount would only be able to rely on provisional and maybe mail ballots for recounting. That’s only a partial recount. Pretty scary for a process involving casting your vote into a black box.
This deficiency was pointed out long ago across the land by voting rights groups, and as a result, now 34 states have instituted some kind of voter verifiable paper ballot/trail voting system. Many have dumped their DRE’s for optical scanning systems which have a scannable paper ballot.
It is generally acknowledged by voting system techies that virtually all electronic systems are hackable, even optical scanners. Definitive studies on this have been done in such large voting jurisdictions as California and Ohio. Hacking tests have been run all over the country to demonstrate just how quick and easy it is to jack with the vote via voting software. Check out the work of such experts as Professor Dan Wallach of Rice University. Thus, arduous testing regimes are put it place with many voting jurisdictions, both pre-voting and during the voting cycle.
Yes, I know, you can manipulate votes also with regular old paper ballot and their counting processes. No, nothing is perfect, but why does Delaware have among the most imperfect voting protections in the country according to Common Cause and Rutgers U.?
I can’t find a single local Democrat to show the slightest interest in this issue so central to a functional democracy. Maybe it is because we’re in a pretty amazing majority here and I’m just carrying over my own paranoia from 45 years of voting in Republican dominated Texas.
But, at the very least, isn’t it time to upgrade a 17 year old voting technology here? And while doing so, enhance our protection of the sacred vote? Neighboring Maryland is doing so by dumping the infamous Diebold DRE system and temporarily, until a replacement can be agreed on, reverting to paper ballots for an upcoming election.
Didn’t someone suggest “trust but verify”?
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“I can’t find a single local Democrat to show the slightest interest in this issue so central to a functional democracy. Maybe it is because we’re in a pretty amazing majority here and I’m just carrying over my own paranoia from 45 years of voting in Republican dominated Texas.”
Maybe you’re coming across as too abrasive and know-it-all who bombards people with too much detailed, technical information right off the bat. No one likes to be hectored and told that they’ve been doing things wrong for two decades by someone who just moved here.
I mean this with all kindness, but you sound like a male Liz Allen spouting off on single-payer shit: You may be right, and probably are, but few people are going to listen.
When Liz gets on a tear about voting machines, she will sometimes blame Israel, though.
I have thought about this issue. What I would really love to see is an open-source machine. Commodity hardware, open software, paper trail, etc. It would have a cadre of politically motivated programmers watching each others programming and identifying flaws to develop a smooth, flexible, fair and resilient voting machine that could be produced cheaply in every polling place in the country.
Everyone knows DE’s election law in general is way outdated. But election reform isn’t sexy and it’s too easy to paint politicians as making the changes for themselves. Also, I agree your approach is misguided. If you bundle this cause with the other election deficiencies, like vague rules, insanely small giving limits etc. you may have more success in garnering interest.
LG
In a perfect world that sounds great, but there’s no way that could be secured. Also having the Department of Elections oversee such a system, is a nightmare waiting to happen.
There is also a task force already looking at elections issues: http://www.delawaregrapevine.com/9-13elextaskforce.asp
Sussexwatcher, your criticism is appreciated.
I can’t find a single local Democrat to show the slightest interest in this issue so central to a functional democracy.
This is the kind of “Good Government” idea that all too often, we have to push the local Democrats (at least the elected ones) to care about. That said, it isn’t unusual for governments to deal with something like this when it becomes an issue — proactive isn’t exactly part of the playbook here. All you have to do is to take a look at how the “search” function for campaign finance reports changed to see that making sure that citizens have all of the info they need at their fingertips isn’t exactly a priority. We also don’t have much (if any) track record of shenanigans with counts or recounts.
An open source system would be interesting. I don’t see why you couldn’t secure it — all you need is to make sure that the people who vote are on the rolls, that there is a solid way to count, a solid way to recount and a way to ensure that others aren’t changing the numbers.
Has a member of the Elections Taskforce I encourage everyone to come to any of our meetings and express your opinion. Our next meeting is December 11th at the New Castle County Elections Warehouse on Lisa Drive. Meetings begin at 1 PM. Elections Commissioner, Elaine Manlove, has already discussed the need for newer machines. Minutes to all previous meetings are on the Commissioners website.
This is why I love Delaware.
Thanks for the heads-up Earl.
a paper receipt is actually a ticket for fraud and vote buying. voters can take their receipt to a third party outside the polling area to prove who they voted for and get paid. very bad. Delaware’s machines have performed extremely well and there has never been an issue raised about hanging chads or butterfly ballots. One can readily imagine the mischief that would be made with paper receipts. as the old saying goes, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
So is it OK to use PP’s real name now since he just outed himself?
pollwatcher, who is talking about voter receipts? A paper record can be kept of each vote within the system.
Stan Merriman, ProgressivePopulist, has absolutely no problem being self-outed. Nothing to hide here.
Regarding “receipts”, the paper ballot/trail systems I have seen keep the vote anonymous and inside the machine, without the voter’s name butreadable by the voter thru a plastic shield to verify before the vote is cast by the user. It maintains in a scrolling paper roll that, if necessary can be counted apart from the digital record of the vote. No receipt in that form is given.
Question for Earl, exactly where is the New Castle County Elections Warehouse?
I’f love to attend the meeting. Voting machine problems are one of my favorite issues to gripe about. Are you aware that during the 2000 Presidential elections in New Castle County there was a %3.6 undervote for president? That means almost 7700 of all the voters did not register a vote for the race between Bush & Gore?
Jim Center–
https://maps.google.com/maps?q=220+Lisa+Drive,+New+Castle,+DE&ie=UTF-8&ei=hzmWUta4MNbMsQTR1YDQBg&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAg
I would love to attend The Elections task force meeting, and many other public meetings in DE, but working people can’t make 1pm meetings. This is an issue throughout Delaware, and one that limits the ability of smart, progressive folks to 1) understand what’s happening and 2) have input. I’d urge Mr. Jacques and the task force to consider evening meetings. And everyone else for that matter.
Thank you LeBay!
I tried to get Sen. Sokola interested in this two years ago; he forwarded my note to someone in elections that pooh-poled my concerns. In spite of all the evidence that’s out there re how easy it is to hack theses machines, she claimed that there is a paper trail and ended the conversation.
We could do like Oregon, everybody votes by mail! Works for them.
Jim Center – The December meeting will be the last one held in New Castle County. The January – March meetings will be held in Dover at the Commissioners office on South State Street. I’ll ask at the next meeting if we could move the February meeting to Legislative Hall in the evening ( 6 PM).
I don’t go on this site very often, so I guess not familiar with the edit button. Sorry!! Here is what was missing from my last comment to Jim Center: During the last legislative session I spoke with my caucus about vote by mail. The problem is that you would have to make major changes to our entire election system, including equipment and personnel. Making vote by mail cost prohibited at this time.
Also my ancestors were English not French – so there is no “C” in Jaques. In fact, three of them were involved in the Boston Tea Party and five of them fought at Bunker Hill (just a little trivia). Happy Thanksgiving!!
Personnel? Are there people in the Elections department that can’t open envelopes? The Republicons must be right, our government is broken and filled with totally incompetent republicans! Chip comes to mind…
I’ll be we can sell the Danaher machines to some third world country in Africa? We might be able to write it off as helping to spread democracy.
“I can’t find a single local Democrat to show the slightest interest in this issue so central to a functional democracy.”
No kidding. Could it be that they are the ones benefiting?? Maybe you should go join the tea party. They talk about voter fraud 24/7.
Why look a gift horse in the mouth, right?
I love that Jordo and FBH both comment on a snippet from the original post that is refuted by the intervening comments.
Also, the Tea Party does talk about fraud 24/7, but usually it’s just about how the poor are so good at doing it. This works for them because there are no supporting facts and that is their favorite kind of issue.
Why would elected officials, regardless of party, get interested in this? They were, after all, elected by voting on the same machines you believe are problematic. For elected officials, this is an “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it” situation.
Earl –
Skip the investment in “newer machines”, invest in a secure voting website like Alaska:
“Voters who opt to have a ballot delivered to them electronically are notified by email when their ballot is available on a secure website. They access the site using personal information such as a voter ID number or Social Security number. Voters can then mark their ballot online to print and mail it in, or they can save it to the system where it can be retrieved by the state’s election division…
[Tablet voting machine company Everyone Counts CEO Lori] Steele acknowledged that sending and returning ballots by email and fax isn’t secure, but she said a password-protected website like that used in Alaska ‘can provide the highest level of security of any voting system at all.'”
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/12/high-tech-voting-2014-midterm-elections-100519.html
Sounds like a dream to me.