Re: Will a vote for John Kerry be counted by a Hart InterCivic eSlate3000 in Honolulu?

[Bart.Lansing () kohls com]

Jason, I have a rather direct question:  Given what you know...and what 
you wrote....why in blazes did you cast your vote electronically?

Bart Lansing
Manager, Desktop Services/Lotus Notes
Kohl's IT


full-disclosure-admin () lists netsys com wrote on 10/20/2004 08:24:59 PM:

> I just voted for John Kerry at a walk-in absentee ballot polling 
> place in Honolulu County using an eSlate3000 (unit serial number 
> A05A0B) made by Hart Intercivic: http://www.hartintercivic.com
>
> I was told by the official who gave me the choice of voting on paper
> or voting electronically that the electronic voting machines weren't
> supposed to be here yet, but that since they arrived in time for the
> 2004 election, they were being used anyway.
>
> Will my vote be counted? That depends on a number of unknowns, such 
> as whether or not the unit on which my vote was cast subsequently 
> malfunctions, rendering the entire vote tabulating memory card corrupt.
>
> I did not receive a paper printout following the submission of my 
> electronic ballot.
>
> Excluding the obvious possibility that fraud may occur, either to 
> stuff the electronic 'ballot box' with false votes, or to 
> intentionally destroy or fail to count votes for a particular 
> candidate, there are risks inherent to electronic voting that do not
> exist in the same way with paper ballots. And although there are 
> technical safeguards possible that seem like common sense, these 
> safeguards continue to be ignored. Why?
>
> Will we ever see common sense safeguards added to the electronic 
> voting process?
>
> A search for known security vulnerabilities or potential flaws in 
> voting equipment manufactured and sold by Hart InterCivic turns up:
>
> http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=31&contentid=1570
>
> Prior to casting my vote, I provided a written 'application' to vote
> containing my current address and other contact information. 
> Election officials have every bit of information necessary to inform
> me in the event of a memory card failure or other malfunction that 
> causes my electronic vote not to be counted properly.
>
> We know the very equipment that I just used to cast my vote has 
> malfunctioned in the past. There have never been any reports that 
> any voter has ever been allowed to revote following the loss of 
> their electronic vote database record. Why not?
>
> I find it absurd that common sense solutions to electronic voting 
> problems are not being used. The vote I just cast could be made 
> available for my anonymous review after it has been counted. For 
> that matter, all votes made by all voters could be aggregated and 
> published such that any voter could confirm that the vote that was 
> counted was in fact the vote that they cast.
>
> Such a safeguard would ensure that no fraud could occur without 
> timely detection by those voters who are directly affected, and no 
> vote would go uncounted or be miscounted by mistake unless voters 
> choose not to perform such data validation.
>
> If we're going to allow these electronic voting devices in our 
> elections, then we the people must be empowered to become the all 
> volunteer quality assurance army that validates the data output.
>
> Reasonable people can live with the necessity to trust election 
> officials to be honest, and the criminal justice procedures to hold 
> them accountable when they are not, but who are we supposed to hold 
> accountable when equipment failures and flawed computer disaster 
> recovery planning result in the secret exclusion of members of the 
> public from access to their right to vote?
>
> If anyone has any further information about Hart InterCivic and the 
> eSlate3000, please contact me directly.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Jason Coombs
> jasonc () science org
>
> _______________________________________________
> Full-Disclosure - We believe in it.
> Charter: http://lists.netsys.com/full-disclosure-charter.html


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