[E-voting] Ohio to use paper ballots !!

[Catherine Ansbro]

>I said that this should be done "if there was a reasonable doubt",
>which I assume would be ultimately determined by a court
>if there were a dispute over the electoral officer's decision.

Tim,

On what basis would anyone be able to claim "reasonable doubt?"  How could 
we ever know whether or not an e-voting company technician in Holland, UK 
or Ireland had been bought off and subtly adjusted the software without 
leaving a trace?  We couldn't rely on the apparent reasonableness of the 
election results themselves.  There would have to be a mandatory audit or a 
significant number of ballots at every election.  Otherwise there'd be no 
deterrent to fraud--especially insider fraud.

I don't think a judge would entertain our concerns--perhaps very 
justified--that someone might have tampered with election software, or used 
a remote dial-in connection to a tabulating computer, or changed a hardware 
component in the tabulating computer without anyone knowing.  Just look at 
the "secure" storage the current e-voting machines--they are all over the 
place and I would have no confidence there is no unauthorized access.  But 
if we don't know that something occurred, how could we convince a judge 
there was reasonable doubt?  Like in the US, the justice system could be 
used to block voters' right to access original ballots, audit logs, etc.

Catherine