Problem

[Thomas M. Albright]

On Wed, 21 Apr 2004, Travis Roy wrote:

> Mark Komarinski wrote:
> 
> > I'm not sure if this is MA wide (I forget what other towns did)
> > but my town has scantron-ish forms that you may remember from
> > the SAT.  Get the paper ballot, fill in the ovals with a marker,
> > run it through the scanner on the way out and the ballot goes
> > into a vault.  No idea if the scanner makes sure the ballot is
> > valid, given that I fill it out properly each time.  I think.
> 
> That was kind of my point. How do you know those things are not flawed 
> in some way, or fixed? How do you know if it counted your vote 
> correctly? Forget about new fangled computers, I'm talking about 
> exsisting systems. What if something happened and it switches Dems for 
> Reps or something like that.. Unless a recount is demanded we would 
> really never know.
> 
That's kinda the poit though: With a paper trail there *can be* a 
recount. With a computer-only system, all the data would be corrupt. 
Personally, I would not feel secure without that safety net.

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TARogue (Linux user number 234357)
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