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New Study Shows Massive Error Rates In E-Voting Machines
from the that-can-swing-an-election dept
Just as e-voting firm Sequoia is resisting having its machines reviewed independently, the Brookings Institute has put a bunch of e-voting machines to the test, and found error rates around 3% on some of the machines. These weren't errors due to software problems, but usability problems, where the design of the system resulted in people voting for a candidate they did not want. 3% is a huge number, and could easily change the results of an election. While the study found that people generally like e-voting technology, that still doesn't mean it's particularly effective. One other interesting part of the finding: when there was a voter-verified paper trail, it didn't cut down on errors. This suggests that many voters were either confused or didn't even bother to verify their vote. This should all be very worrisome. Even ignoring the technology problems that these machines have been shown to have, the fact that the design tends to create so many mistake votes should lead people to seriously question the use of e-voting machines.
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Reader Comments (rss)
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failure rate of paper ballots?
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Voter mistakes
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Founding Fathers are rolling in their graves . . .
"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety"
Same is true in regards to "convienience."
If you don't CARE enough about as something as important as your own vote then you deserve NONE of the benifits of this country.
Especially since your vote doesn't just affect you.
The level of apathy and just general lack of respect and responsibility in this country pains me at times.
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and...
I don't think barring them for life is going to have the desired effect.
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One mans error
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crazy thought here...
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Where do the companies come from? What did UTX start?
Your not fooling anyone.
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Hmm
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Check it out before it goes away:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=334
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Usability
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A few different points.
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"3% error rate? Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't that the usual error rate when you read poll numbers?"
Polling error rates are due to the fact that small sample size results are projected upon the entire population, thus predicting an outcome.
In the article, the error rate is measured.
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Electronic Voting Machines
As to the "huge" 3% differential, yes it is huge. But if the mistakes are more or less divided among the different voters and candidates, then it is unlikely to make any difference except in VERY close elections
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Expectations are too high.
Maybe you could try putting pictures of candidates on e-voting machines? You know, kind of how McDonald's has picture menus for those who cannot read?
Or you might stop pouring billions annually into the education abyss, and thus force back-to-basics, and use savings to improve voting technology.
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You say this like it is a bad thing
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And until you have somthing to compare this too (i.e. the error rates of current voting systems) wh y is this even being discussed?
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Too much junk on a ballot => higher error rate. D
for key positions such as governor, senator, and president, there should be only the one position being voted on.
congressmen and initiatives should be on a separate ballot.
a good e-vote w/paper trail solution could make it easier to vote more frequently. And there are some absolutely simple tamper proof e-vote w/paper trail systems. We don't use them, but they exist. The trick is in the paper.
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Voting Machines
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Voting Machines
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Voting Machines
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Re: Founding Fathers are rolling in their graves .
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Re: Founding Fathers are rolling in their graves .
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Re: A few different points.
The point that you're missing is that those in the %60 who supposed didn't vote really did vote. They voted with their feet for "None of the above". It's not the fault of the voter if there are no candidates worth voting for.
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Re:
Yeah, what he said. Shut up saying bad things about voting machines.
(Disclosure: I own voting machine company stock)
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Re: A few different points.
In other words, democrats have no right to complain about republicans in office and vice versa. If you're a democrat we already know you don't like the republican who won the election so just shut up already. You didn't elect him anyway. It was republicans who put him in office and those are the only ones he's obligated to listen to now. If he doesn't do what he said he would that made you vote for him then you, as someone who actually voted for him, have something to complain about.
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"If he doesn't do what he said he would "
Ummm, help me out here ......
I'm trying to recall the last time a politician followed through with what was promised.
All I remember are the (many) times that the opposite happened.
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Re: Voting Machines
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Re: Re: A few different points.
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Some people are stupid
Some people are too stupid to drive cars.
Some people are too stupid to operate power tools.
Unfortunatly these people aren't too stupid to reproduce.
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Voting machine integrtity
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There is no perfect system
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This just in...
Seriously, what a crock of BS this is. This 3% error rate is obviously human error. Even the article states that.
"These weren't errors due to software problems, but usability problems, where the design of the system resulted in people voting for a candidate they did not want."
The design of paper ballots causes the same issue. It's not the voting machine, IT'S THE VOTER. I hate press that insinuates there are problems with the electronic voting machines, such as the title of this article does.
Harumph!
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Re: Re: A few different points.
After all, you are the one who put him in office, not the people who voted for the other guy.
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3% is an improvement!
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eVote
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Am I the only one that has a problem with this ?
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No less perfect than paper ballots!
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Multiple replies
First not voting is voting: This is bull what a lot of people are looking for is the "perfect candidate". There is no such thing. Yes there are people that we may agree with on a lot of things but not everything. Not voting is being lazy. Sometimes its just better to vote for the person you think you agree with the most and holding that persons feet to the fire when you don't If nothing else if possible run yourself if you are elegible.
Second: Winners/loosers can't complain: Yes both can. Because those who voted for the winner can complain when said person doesn't follow through on what they say. Those who lost can still complain because they at least tried to get the person they wanted elected and will continue to make there points to the people (if the listen) and try and get things to change.
I think the biggest problem are country is facing right now is that there are only two parties involved. Are founding fathers I don't think intended for this to happen but it has. I think though as more and more people become disillsioned with either party I can see one or more parties rising to power. Which wouldn't be a bad thing it would mean people would have to do more reasearch.
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Re: Multiple replies
"Faction" or "parties" indicated that representatives were not acting with virtue, i.e. they did not have the best interests of the Commonwealth, but rather were governed by their own private views.
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Hillary in Tuzla: The Tale of Bosnian Sniper Fire (TRAILER)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=It6JN7ALF7Y
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.... but rather were governed by their own private views.
and their fears were warranted.
I suppose you could say this is a representative government, however it is not the will of the people that is being represented.
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https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=19248375&postID=5418832287881365472&page=1
That whole blog needs serious checking out by Masnick & co. -- not only have we got the usual misunderstanding of business models here, right down to the nonsense phrase "steal content", but a serious control-freak attitude in general that, if widely adopted by web site operators, would doom web 3.0 and destroy most of the value of the existing web, as well as locking in a small search engine oligopoly of only the existing big search companies.
Of course, they're also openly advocating cloaking different content to search engines than gets shown to humans, which would make the search engines utterly worthless to users anyway as what they found and linked to would no longer bear any reliable correspondence to what the user actually searched for.
A Techdirt article specifically on how it's both evil and stupid to try to completely lock down one's web site seems to be overdue. :)
On the topic, it's worth noting that Sequoia has been intimidating third-party reviewers of its machines and source code with specious threats of copyright-infringement lawsuits, and claiming falsely that simply describing the behavior of its machines could infringe copyright.
This kind of copyright misuse needs to be stopped, whether by Sequoia or by J. Random Webmaster.
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Re: and...
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Why do people go on and on about these 'problems' with voting machines like it's some issue with 'fairness'? The problems aren't a concern of those in charge - being able to manipulate the vote is the core concern and I'm sure they work quite well for that.
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My solution
to vote and once to verify their vote.
If the votes don't match a trap door drops
open and they fall onto the rotating knives
to be flushed into the sewer system.
Voters would tend to be more careful and
those incapable would be culled.
MWUAH HA HA HA!
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Write-In Vote Tabulation
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Re: Multiple replies
Every citizen has a right to complain. You need to read the US constitution sometime my fascist little friend. It's covered by things like the right to petition the government and freedom of speech. Those rights are not limited, as you would seem to like, to those who can prove that they voted for one of the officially offered candidates in the last election. You may not like it, but that's the way it is. And while you might like for everyone who won't play your game to just "shut up", that's not the way it works either.
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Re: Re: Founding Fathers are rolling in their graves .
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