Notice several things in this article below:
The voter can do a "a post-voting verification of the capture of their
ballots for the tabulation phase of the election"
However, if the voter can verify his/her cast choices online, then
what is to prevent vote-buying? If the voter cannot verify his/her
cast choices then how does the voter *know* that the e-ballot is
displayed correctly on-line? Even if the voter sees his/her e-ballot
displayed correctly on-line, how does the voter know that the same
ballot was included in the vote tally?
There is apparently not provided a way for the voters to check that
*all* other votes have been cast correctly.
There is not a way for the voters to know if *all* the ballots were
cast and counted correctly.
Therefore, even if *all* voters checked and found an online matching
ballot, there is no way provided for voters to know that the same set
of ballots was used to tally the election results.
This system depends on the security of a web site that allegedly
serves up the exact same set of ballots that were used to tally the
results, and were all tallied correctly even though the system does
not provide a way for anyone to check that this is the case.
This system depends for its accurate functioning on the security of a
complex ballot definition file that the voters are provided no way to
oversee the security of, and which if manipulated can be used to alter
the winners of the election.
This article below does not describe a publicly verifiable
post-election audit of the accuracy of election outcomes of the type
that I've been recommending. It seems that it does provide another
song and dance that may fool some members of the public into thinking
that a post-election check of the election outcome accuracy has been
done.
Correct me if I'm wrong anyone. Takoma Park, MD is the home of Fair
Vote. Does Fair Vote support this voting system?
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[5] EPIC Audits First Public Election to use Scantagrity Voting System
=======================================================================
The city of Takoma Park Maryland’s Clerk of Elections sought EPIC's
assistance in conducting a manual audit of their November 3, 2009
election. The city chose the Scantagrity voting system for its biannual
election for mayor and city council. Scantagrity is an original concept
developed by David Chaum and has been refined for use in elections
through the collaboration of Ron Rivest, MIT and Poorvi Vora, Computing
Science Department at George Washington University.
Scantagrity’s implementation for the Takoma Park election allowed
voters the option of performing a post-voting verification of the
capture of their ballots for the tabulation phase of the election.
Takoma Park voters also had the option of second chance voting, which
allowed the selection of primary and secondary choice for the public
offices on Tuesday’s ballot.
This marked the first time in the U.S. that voters had the option to
check that their private votes are correctly recorded and included in
the election results. Selections on each ballot used unique codes for
each possible selection on the ballot. The codes correspond to the
ballot number. It is important to note, however, that ballots are not
associated with a specific voter. Poll book registration logging of
voters participating in the election was separate from the issuance of
ballots to voters.
Voters were given ballots in a privacy sleeve. They then voted using
optical scan ballots behind privacy screens, which allowed voters the
option of noting the codes and ballot numbers on a form they could take
with them. Voters then deposited completed ballots into one of two
scanners. Later, voters could verify that their ballot was included in
the final results by going to the City Election Office’s web site and
entering the ballot number. The process was not as accessible for
unassisted voting for persons vision related disabilities, when
compared with touch screen voting systems. However, the ability of
voters with a wide range of disability challenges were able to vote
independently, or with little assistance with their privacy sleeve
enclosed ballot’s insertion in the scanner.
EPIC was asked to randomly select ballots from the choice of ballots
provided to voters from each of the 6 wards. Over 1600 Takoma Park
voters participated in the election. The audit ballots were selected
at varying times throughout the Election Day, under the supervision of
election officials. Takoma Park elections officials voided each audit
ballot and marked ballots stubs to indicate that they were part of the
manual audit. Then EPIC processed each manual audit ballot by revealing
all possible selections for each ballot, then a copy of the original
manual audit ballot was made. The original ballots were placed in a
spoiled manual audit ballot envelope held by another election official
stationed in the polling location. Each ballot copy was then endorsed
by the Chief Election Judge, which will aid in authentication of the
copies when they are submitted to the City Clerk’s office. The manual
audit ballots and their selections will be verified and the results
reported to the Takoma Park Clerk’s office.
Scantagrity:
http://www.scantegrity.org/
Links: Takoma Park Election’s Office:
http://www.takomaparkmd.gov/clerk/election/2009/index.html
Takoma Ballot verification Web page:
http://scantegrity.org/takoma/checkcodes
EPIC’s Voting Privacy Page:
http://epic.org/privacy/voting/
--
Kathy Dopp
Town of Colonie, NY 12304
phone
518-952-4030
cell
518-505-0220
http://utahcountvotes.org
http://electionmathematics.org
http://kathydopp.com/serendipity/
Realities Mar Instant Runoff Voting - 18 Flaws and 4 Benefits
http://electionmathematics.org/ucvAnalysis/US/RCV-IRV/InstantRunoffVotingFlaws.pdf
Voters Have Reason to Worry
http://utahcountvotes.org/UT/UtahCountVotes-ThadHall-Response.pdf
Checking election outcome accuracy --- Post-election audit sampling
http://electionmathematics.org/em-audits/US/PEAuditSamplingMethods.pdf