News & Insights
We’re Making History in Real Time.
Our timely insights share informed perspectives on the rapidly evolving story of Election Technology, as it unfolds.
Internet Voting: Perils and Summary
No, I am not going to lecture on why Internet voting is bad for half a dozen different reasons. In fact, Internet voting is both a horribly loaded term, and also a general topic that is not germane to our current work at OSDV -- which is technologically fixing the election technology mess that we are in, without also trying to change the way elections work.
Trusting Neither People, Paper, or Computers: Hybrid Voting Scheme
In a previous posting, I referred to paper ballots as part of a recipe for election procedures that provide provide integrity and assurance by not relying solely on either computers or people to operate perfectly. As promised, here is some more info, especially important because there seems to be an increasing trend towards a "hybrid" style of election operations with both paper ballots and a variant of computerized voting.
Re-inventing How America Votes -- Now More Relevant Than Ever
In a previous post, I noted two things we've learned from this election. The first (and subject of that post) is to what extent the Internet has changed the way elections are conducted. The second, and the focus here, is to what extent the election taught us anything about the need to re-invent HOW America votes.
In the past two days, I've been asked several times whether the election, as it turned out, reduces the importance of our Project or not. Seriously.
House Panel OKs "Voting Paper Trail" Bill
I thought that today's news about e-voting and legislation is notable as an example of the way voting technology and policy interact in our unique U.S. voting system.
First, what was Congress working on? Crafting legislation about elections; one bill to authorize payments to states for efforts to put in place paper ballots or paper audits for the November 2008 election, and another that effectively over-rules 21 states' regulations requiring a voter to have a valid "excuse" to qualify for an absentee ballot (a.k.a. vote by mail).
Voters Must Count
ABC News and Facebook are running one of their daily (sometimes hourly) political polls this morning with this question: Is the plan for Michigan Democrats to re-run their primary on June 3 a good idea?
So far its running about 53% to 41% against the idea.
Why Complexity? Look to the Balkans
Many thanks to what Dave Barry would call “alert reader Brandon F.” for posing a question that comes up a lot concerning digital voting. To paraphrase slightly: why not specify and standardize on ballot paper, ballot layout, ballot marking locations in the layout, and scanning systems to automate counting? Why is everyone making this so complex?
California Primaries, Piles of Paper, and Hand Counts
The upcoming California presidential primary is going to be a great real-world source of insight on the perennial question:"What's wrong with paper ballots?"
Of course, paper ballots are a necessary component of elections in most parts of the US, but one variant of that question is about the so-called pure-paper election with hand-marked paper ballots that are counted manually. With this model in mind, people often ask why is voting technology needed at all?