Is paper really so bad?

November 3rd, 2006 | by Tim Wilson |

This isn’t a political blog, and I don’t intend for it to become one. But I just can’t ignore the technology angle that’s brewing in our upcoming U.S. election. I’ve been concerned for some time about the potential for fraud and errors associated with the current state of electronic voting devices. Jon Stokes at Ars Technica has an excellent article summarizing the latest information about voting problems and potential problems with these machines.

Party affiliation is irrelevant here. It’s likely that thousands of voters next Tuesday will have their votes miscast or not accepted at all. While I don’t discount entirely the possibility of carefully planned attempts to manipulate the results of the vote, I’m also reminded of what Napolean said, “Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence.” My bigger concern is that large numbers of voters will be disenfranchised by simple technical glitches that won’t be properly handled by poorly trained (however well-intentioned) election judges.

Others have called for a government-sponsored project to develop open source voting software and hardware. I think that’s the only solution that has any hope of producing a secure, reliable, and trustworthy system. I would also recommend the Verified Voting Foundation as a good source of information on this topic.

Please read the Ars Technica article and be prepared to stand up for your right to vote next Tuesday.

electronic voting, midterm election, verified voting foundation, election 2006

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  1. One Response to “Is paper really so bad?”

  2. By Doug Johnson on Nov 3, 2006 | Reply

    I worry about abandoning using paper for any archival purpose. I get calls from folks who want to sell the district document retrieval systems now and then - high priced automated scanners and complex indexing systems. Might make sense if one needed to retrieve information so often that current clerical staff can’t handle it, but no vendor has given me the assurance I need to believe any form of digital media will last 10 years, let alone 50, 100 or 1,000 - which paper has proven it can do.

    Yeah, cellulose might be more important than one thinks for a number of reasons. Something stable about atoms you just don’t get with electrons.

    Doug

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