I added some links and blogs to the lists at the side. Check them out!
That's all for now.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Why is E-Voting Bad?
I'm not even going to pretend to be unbiased in what I write. I have a very specific goal in mind: to raise awareness of the problems associated with e-voting and demonstrate why it is a threat to democracy. Also, although optical scanners and other similar devices are considered methods of electronic voting, I am primarily concerned with voting via computer.
Anyways, with that out of the way:
Electronic voting, otherwise known as e-voting, is slowly starting to replace "traditional" voting methods. Instead of filling out a paper ballot, more and more people have been forced to vote using specialized voting computers. These electronic voting machines are supposed to make voting easier and facilitate the process of determining the outcome of elections. This has not happened. E-voting has resulted in thousands of ballots not being counted and an inability to conduct a recount ("E-Voting Rights"). The machines are extremely insecure, and an expert from Princeton University warned that all "10,000 voting machines [in New Jersey] could be hacked into in about seven minutes" (New York Times Editorial Board, emphasis added). It takes only seven minutes to hack into 10,000 machines?! This means that one person with enough knowledge of computers could conceivably decide an entire state election! Even those few voting machines that print paper copies of ballots have proven unreliable. In a tight race in Ohio required a recount, election officials "discovered that so many printers had jammed that 20 percent of the machines involved in the recounted races lacked paper copies of some of the votes," and although the ballots could simply be reprinted, officials "had no way of proving that these replacements were, indeed, what the voters had voted" (Thompson). How can anyone in their right mind think that these machines are good things? They have most certainly not made voting easier; they've made it more complicated than anyone could ever have imagined. E-voting presents a clear danger to American ideals of democracy. It has already disenfranchised thousands and experts have shown the security vulnerabilities that hackers could use to alter election results. The American people must stand up and fight this enemy of democracy.
Here are some useful links I found during some preliminary research:
The Electronic Frontier Foundation: Dedicated to protecting our rights online. Includes a section on e-voting.
HowStuffWorks: Provides useful background information on e-voting.
Black Box Voting: An American electronic voting watchdog group.
Works Cited
Black Box Voting - America's Election Watchdog Group. 04 Dec. 2008. http://www.blackboxvoting.org/
Bonsor, Kevin and Jonathan Strickland. "How E-Voting Works." HowStuffWorks. 04 Dec. 2008. http://www.howstuffworks.com/e-voting.htm
"E-Voting Rights." Electronic Frontier Foundation. 04 Dec. 2008. http://www.eff.org/issues/e-voting
Editorial Board. "New Jersery Still Needs to Fix its Electronic Voting." The New York Times. 25 Nov. 2008. 04 Dec. 2008. http://theboard.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/25/new-jersey-still-needs-to-fix-its-electronic-voting/?scp=5&sq=Electronic%20Voting%20Problems&st=cse
Thompson, Clive. "Can You Count on Voting Machines?" The New York Times. 06 Jan. 2008. 04 Dec. 2008. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/magazine/06Vote-t.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Electronic%20Voting%20Problems&st=cse
Anyways, with that out of the way:
Electronic voting, otherwise known as e-voting, is slowly starting to replace "traditional" voting methods. Instead of filling out a paper ballot, more and more people have been forced to vote using specialized voting computers. These electronic voting machines are supposed to make voting easier and facilitate the process of determining the outcome of elections. This has not happened. E-voting has resulted in thousands of ballots not being counted and an inability to conduct a recount ("E-Voting Rights"). The machines are extremely insecure, and an expert from Princeton University warned that all "10,000 voting machines [in New Jersey] could be hacked into in about seven minutes" (New York Times Editorial Board, emphasis added). It takes only seven minutes to hack into 10,000 machines?! This means that one person with enough knowledge of computers could conceivably decide an entire state election! Even those few voting machines that print paper copies of ballots have proven unreliable. In a tight race in Ohio required a recount, election officials "discovered that so many printers had jammed that 20 percent of the machines involved in the recounted races lacked paper copies of some of the votes," and although the ballots could simply be reprinted, officials "had no way of proving that these replacements were, indeed, what the voters had voted" (Thompson). How can anyone in their right mind think that these machines are good things? They have most certainly not made voting easier; they've made it more complicated than anyone could ever have imagined. E-voting presents a clear danger to American ideals of democracy. It has already disenfranchised thousands and experts have shown the security vulnerabilities that hackers could use to alter election results. The American people must stand up and fight this enemy of democracy.
Here are some useful links I found during some preliminary research:
The Electronic Frontier Foundation: Dedicated to protecting our rights online. Includes a section on e-voting.
HowStuffWorks: Provides useful background information on e-voting.
Black Box Voting: An American electronic voting watchdog group.
Works Cited
Black Box Voting - America's Election Watchdog Group. 04 Dec. 2008. http://www.blackboxvoting.org/
Bonsor, Kevin and Jonathan Strickland. "How E-Voting Works." HowStuffWorks. 04 Dec. 2008. http://www.howstuffworks.com/e-voting.htm
"E-Voting Rights." Electronic Frontier Foundation. 04 Dec. 2008. http://www.eff.org/issues/e-voting
Editorial Board. "New Jersery Still Needs to Fix its Electronic Voting." The New York Times. 25 Nov. 2008. 04 Dec. 2008. http://theboard.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/25/new-jersey-still-needs-to-fix-its-electronic-voting/?scp=5&sq=Electronic%20Voting%20Problems&st=cse
Thompson, Clive. "Can You Count on Voting Machines?" The New York Times. 06 Jan. 2008. 04 Dec. 2008. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/magazine/06Vote-t.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Electronic%20Voting%20Problems&st=cse
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