[E-voting] FW: [IP] more on (wiith comments by djf) NYTimes.comArticle: Why We Fear the Digital Ballot

[adam beecher]

You're right of course Fergal, but it's still very worrying to see a
respected technologist like Farber deprioritise it so thoroughly.

I'm afraid I have to admit that I'm not so sure on the rigging issue. I only
partially subscribe to Hanlon's Razor.

adam
 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: e-voting-bounces at lists.stdlib.net 
> [mailto:e-voting-bounces at lists.stdlib.net] On Behalf Of Fergal Daly
> Sent: 28 September 2004 13:16
> To: adam beecher
> Cc: ICTE
> Subject: Re: [E-voting] FW: [IP] more on (wiith comments by 
> djf) NYTimes.comArticle: Why We Fear the Digital Ballot
> 
> I think it's a symptom of this particular election. Democrats 
> are making a huge effort to get turnout of the non-voting 
> anti-Bush people, immigrants, poor and also to make sure that 
> the people who think they're on the register, really are on 
> the register and haven't been removed for some bogus reason.
> 
> If you assume
> 
> 1 - without this turnout Bush will win whether the machines 
> are rigged or not
> 
> 2 - the machines probably aren't rigged in most cases
> 
> That makes it a choice between accurately counting a Bush 
> victory or probably accurately counting a Bush loss.
> 
> F
> 
> On Tue, Sep 28, 2004 at 12:50:52PM +0100, adam beecher wrote:
> > [And a couple of follow-ups. I tend to agree with Dave on a lot of 
> > things, but he's lost me /completely/ here. --adam]
> >  
> > 
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: owner-ip at v2.listbox.com
> > > [mailto:owner-ip at v2.listbox.com] On Behalf Of David Farber
> > > Sent: 28 September 2004 00:21
> > > To: ip at v2.listbox.com
> > > Subject: [IP] more on (wiith comments by djf) NYTimes.com
> > > Article: Why We Fear the Digital Ballot
> > > 
> > > While I see benefits to do all we can to assure accurate 
> tallies, I 
> > > think it is a lot more important to assure that voters 
> are allowed 
> > > to register and get to the polls. That is not the case in 
> many parts 
> > > of our country. Also  endlessly telling the public that it is a 
> > > waste of time to believe that their votes will be 
> accurately counted 
> > > does not inspire people to go to the polls.
> > > 
> > > At this date lets devote our energy to getting out the voters.
> > > 
> > > Dave
> > > 
> > > Begin forwarded message:
> > > 
> > > From: "Robert J. Berger" <rberger at ibd.com>
> > > Date: September 27, 2004 7:10:08 PM EDT
> > > To: Dave Farber <dave at farber.net>
> > > Subject: Re: [IP] (wiith comments by djf) NYTimes.com
> > > Article: Why We Fear the Digital Ballot
> > > 
> > > I agree with you 100%, but what your comment and the 
> article miss, 
> > > is that at least the Diabold voting machines and the 
> associated GEMS 
> > > management software are just plain bad. They have known  
> back doors, 
> > > the data can be manipulated with plain Windows computers with MS 
> > > Access software, have no public review of the code (other 
> than the 
> > > code that was found on their FTP site which got some very bad 
> > > reviews) and they have a CEO who is blatantly pro Republican.
> > > 
> > > The first step, that needs to be done BEFORE Nov 2nd is public 
> > > review of the software and paper printouts suitable for manual 
> > > reconciliation on all electronic voting machines.
> > > Anything less will mean that there can be no trust in the 
> vote done 
> > > by these devices.
> > > 
> > > Then we can do as you suggest and get it right (or at 
> least orders 
> > > of magnitude closer to "right").
> > > 
> > > Rob
> > > 
> > > -------------------------------------
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> > >   http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip
> > > 
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> > > 
> > 
> > 
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