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Lecturer criticizes accuracy of the voting process
Reliability of voting machines and mail ballots questioned as presidential election nears
by Trevor Davis | News Reporter
As the United States prepares to pick its next commander-in-chief, naysayers say technology being used in the country's voting process isn't up to par. Some computer scientists are critical of voting machines, and one of them has a mission to make the University community more aware of the problem.
Barbara Simons, a former researcher at IBM's Research Center in California, will talk about electronic voting today at 7 p.m. in room 110 at the School of Law. The event is free and open to the public.
Simons said she plans on talking about voting machines and possibly Internet voting. Issues primarily revolve around security and policy related to voting machines.
"As we've been learning, they're just poorly engineered and tend to break a lot," Simons said. "They're also insecure, so it's possible to insert a virus."
Simons said the topic may interest students.
"Voting is the foundation of our democracy, and if voting is insecure or if people don't trust the results, that's not a good thing," Simons said.
The push for voting machines came about to improve accessibility for those with disabilities. The Help America Act was put into law in 2002. Local governments were given billions of dollars to purchase e-voting machines.
"There was a gold rush mentality," Simons said. "States and local governments had federal money to spend. Vendors had to get their act together quickly and told everyone how great their systems worked."
Simons said she took an interest in e-voting around 2000.
She was a member of the National Workshop on Internet Voting that produced a report on Internet voting in 2001. Simons is also a past president of Association for Computing Machinery, a group made up of educators and professionals in the science and computer sectors. Although Simons primarily focused on computer science theories in her early studies, she took on e-voting.
"The more I learned, the more appalled I got," Simons said.
Visiting political science assistant professor Keith Smith said students have been interested in voting methods and their effectiveness after the 2000 recount in Florida.
"I don't think we have any good answers yet about which method really is the best," Smith said. "In fact, I think if anything, the research has shown us that it's the people at the voting booth - how helpful they are - who make a difference in how well or how much we can trust the results."
University student Nate Otto said in an e-mail that electronic voting machines don't allow the public to know how the votes are counted.
"I can't think of a greater crime against a democracy than interference with the vote," Otto said. "When the public does not have full access to voting machines and the source code that runs them, there is no way to tell whether or not votes are being stolen."
Otto said he prefers Oregon's vote-by-mail elections.
"We in Oregon are lucky that we vote on paper, so there is a solid record of our votes in case the machines go haywire," he said.
Simons, however, is even critical of Oregon's vote-by-mail elections.
"I personally don't like it because vote-by-mail is susceptible to fraud," Simons said. She added that if ballots are sent in bulk to a retirement home, for example, ballots could be stolen.
Simons urged anyone to attend tonight's event. The talk will not revolve heavily around technological language, and there will be a question and answer session, she said.
tdavis@dailyemerald.com
Barbara Simons, a former researcher at IBM's Research Center in California, will talk about electronic voting today at 7 p.m. in room 110 at the School of Law. The event is free and open to the public.
Simons said she plans on talking about voting machines and possibly Internet voting. Issues primarily revolve around security and policy related to voting machines.
"As we've been learning, they're just poorly engineered and tend to break a lot," Simons said. "They're also insecure, so it's possible to insert a virus."
Simons said the topic may interest students.
"Voting is the foundation of our democracy, and if voting is insecure or if people don't trust the results, that's not a good thing," Simons said.
The push for voting machines came about to improve accessibility for those with disabilities. The Help America Act was put into law in 2002. Local governments were given billions of dollars to purchase e-voting machines.
"There was a gold rush mentality," Simons said. "States and local governments had federal money to spend. Vendors had to get their act together quickly and told everyone how great their systems worked."
Simons said she took an interest in e-voting around 2000.
She was a member of the National Workshop on Internet Voting that produced a report on Internet voting in 2001. Simons is also a past president of Association for Computing Machinery, a group made up of educators and professionals in the science and computer sectors. Although Simons primarily focused on computer science theories in her early studies, she took on e-voting.
"The more I learned, the more appalled I got," Simons said.
Visiting political science assistant professor Keith Smith said students have been interested in voting methods and their effectiveness after the 2000 recount in Florida.
"I don't think we have any good answers yet about which method really is the best," Smith said. "In fact, I think if anything, the research has shown us that it's the people at the voting booth - how helpful they are - who make a difference in how well or how much we can trust the results."
University student Nate Otto said in an e-mail that electronic voting machines don't allow the public to know how the votes are counted.
"I can't think of a greater crime against a democracy than interference with the vote," Otto said. "When the public does not have full access to voting machines and the source code that runs them, there is no way to tell whether or not votes are being stolen."
Otto said he prefers Oregon's vote-by-mail elections.
"We in Oregon are lucky that we vote on paper, so there is a solid record of our votes in case the machines go haywire," he said.
Simons, however, is even critical of Oregon's vote-by-mail elections.
"I personally don't like it because vote-by-mail is susceptible to fraud," Simons said. She added that if ballots are sent in bulk to a retirement home, for example, ballots could be stolen.
Simons urged anyone to attend tonight's event. The talk will not revolve heavily around technological language, and there will be a question and answer session, she said.
tdavis@dailyemerald.com
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posted 9/25/08 @ 4:48 AM PST
I think there is more chance of confusion and mistakes with email than with the machines. You can always ask someone if you have a problem there. Also there are glitches with the internet and computers. (Continued…)
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posted 9/26/08 @ 3:21 AM PST
Some questions have been reaised here, about the stability and the quality of the voting machines. I think the technology has proven it's worth. But i agree, that the accuracy of the voting machines should be under the scanner. (Continued…)
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