[Novalug] [OT] Dead People voting was - Open source voting machine

[Bonnie Dalzell]

On Fri, 6 Nov 2009, Sean McGowan wrote:

> Excellent.  It looks like this system will still work for dead people
> too!
>

As a election judge I actually have looked into this - since I found that 
my deceased in 2004 father (Republican) had been issued an absentee ballot 
for the 2008 election. The source of the dead people voting problem is 
more in the registration process and the passing of information from 
various agencies than in the machines themselves.

The poll lists are maintained by the Board of Elections. Different 
jurisdictions have different requirements for how people are dropped from 
the poll lists. In Maryland supposedly you are dropped if you do not vote 
in a two major elections in a row. The counties DO NOT check with the 
office that registers deaths. However at a polling place any voter can 
challenge any one checking in to vote and then the election judge asks for 
identification, otherwise there is no identification required for 
returning voters. Identification is requested for voters voting for the 
first time at a precinct. In addition the political parties are allowed to 
have official "watchers and challengers" who can stay at the polling place 
all day and challenge voters who appear suspicious to force the voters to 
produce identification.

Also here in Baltimore County an attempt is made to assign election 
judges to a local polling place so you are more likely to recognize 
people. A given precinct has around 2000 voters and around 20 election 
judges.


When you check in to vote you do sign a small receipt that certifies that 
you are who the receipt says you are, That receipt is retained as part 
of the election records. Falsely certifying that you are someone who you 
are not for purposes of voting is a felony in Maryland and every one who 
votes has to sign such a receipt. The receipts are kept with the voting 
machine and the number of ballots cast in the machine have to match the 
number of such receipts. Hey, its not perfect, but if one person went from 
precinct to precinct presenting themselves as many different voters they do 
leave a paper trail with signatures and finger prints on it.

The main reason the our balloting system works as well as it does is that 
so many people are involved which makes it harder to commit really large 
scale fraud. The bigger the conspiracy the more likely it is that 
something will leak out.

All paper work done at the polling station and all handling of sensitive 
materials has to be done with the election judges in pairs - one for 
each party.

The places where the greatest vulnerability comes in my opinion is at 
the Board of Elections but I think the two political parties have 
auditors who sit in on all actions there. I plan to look into this also 
before the next election.

I highly reccommend signing up to be an election judge incidently. It is a 
long hard day but somehow it really is exciting and you get a feeling of 
participation and that you are protecting our democratic process. In 
Maryland they have a special category which is the technical judge who 
gets some limited additional training about the voting machines. But you 
should do the basic election judge stuff first because the training 
materials teach you so much about the details of the election process and 
how it is protected and policed.

In the US approximately 2% of the registered voters participate in the 
holding of the elections as polling place workers and election judges.


> On Fri, 2009-11-06 at 16:33 -0500, Bonnie Dalzell wrote:
>>
>> Maryland Voters Test New Cryptographic Voting System
>>
>> http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/11/scantegrity
>>
>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>                         Bonnie Dalzell, MA
>> mail:5100 Hydes Rd PO Box 60, Hydes,MD,USA 21082-0060|EMAIL:bdalzell at qis.net
>> Freelance anatomist, vertebrate paleontologist, writer, illustrator, dog
>> breeder, computer nerd & iconoclast... Borzoi info at www.borzois.com.
>> HOME www.batw.net    ART bdalzellart.batw.net  BUSINESS www.boardingatwedge.com
>>
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                        Bonnie Dalzell, MA
mail:5100 Hydes Rd PO Box 60, Hydes,MD,USA 21082-0060|EMAIL:bdalzell at qis.net
Freelance anatomist, vertebrate paleontologist, writer, illustrator, dog
breeder, computer nerd & iconoclast... Borzoi info at www.borzois.com.
HOME www.batw.net    ART bdalzellart.batw.net  BUSINESS www.boardingatwedge.com