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Even as you're out participating in the democratic process today, you should probably know that many security experts have been sounding concern about the use of e-voting. In particular, they are concerned about the trustworthiness of the e-voting system. Recently, these experts have called on the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) to review and revise the e-voting security guidelines and processes.

In response, Paul DeGregorio, chairman of the EAC has opined that the concerns voiced by security experts are actually hurting the electoral process rather than helping it. He says

"Is there any proof that a voting system has successfully been hacked during an election? No... Can the hype over hacking discourage voters from participating in our elections? It certainly can."

Mr. DeGregorio may be right but there are others who are concerned about protecting the integrity of e-voting before any compromise or tampering occurs.

A Princeton paper released a couple of months ago highlighted that the Diebold e-voting machines were assessed to be vulnerable to malware and voter fraud. This has led to widespread concern about the overall security and robustness of the e-voting machines.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation argues convincingly for a paper trail in order to maintain auditability and provide confirmation to the voter that the votes were registered as intended. On their website, the EFF makes the following case -

"Twenty-three states still do not require a paper record of all votes, despite the demonstrated technical failures of e-voting machines in the 2004 presidential election -- including the complete loss of thousands of votes. In turn, voters cannot verify that the e-voting machines are recording their votes as intended, and election officials cannot conduct recounts."

To not federally mandate a paper trail befuddles me...seems like a simple enough solution with important ramifications. It's amazing that we can get paper verification on how much gas we've purchased but not on who we've voted for.

Posted by andreyee in Odds and Ends |Digg This|Add to del.icio.us

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