[E-voting] E-voting/e-counting chaos in scotland

[Dave Madden]

On Fri, May 04, 2007 at 11:18:31AM -0400, cansbro at eircom.net wrote:
> Here at ICTE we've never talked a lot about optical scanning and the
> potential/actual problems.  The quote above: "100% accurate but it is only
> designed to count clear votes" alludes to just one of the problems--machine
> calibration and the many problems that can arise.  And that is just one of
> the problems.  

There was some discussion of optical scanning in the context of what 
exactly we mean by VVAT.

Personally I think optical scanning has time on its side. Its problem is 
one of the level of accuracy available with current technology, but this 
is something that could reasonably be expected to improve over time. So, 
while I'd be wary of using this technology now, and while certainly the 
right checks need to be available, I don't have any fundamental 
objection to opt scan.

Contrast that with paperless DRE systems. The flaw with such 
technology -is- fundamental. Incremental engineering improvements 
can't overcome DRE's problem. (I'm not considering systems that use 
cryptographic verification, but they have other problems IMO.)

Dave