May. 23, 2004 - 20:43 MST

THE WONDERING JEW

A Trace

Our son is still in hospital, white blood cell count low as well as some other complications are keeping him there for now. He still fights the fight and is walking around down the hall and to areas with more seating to visit with family, his room overflows so he pushes his gizmo down the hall where we all can be together. We pray.

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An article in The Denver Post of today, by Katharine Q. Seelye, in part - Headed:

Groups demand e-vote tracking

"Paper trail" called key safeguard

"Washington -- A coalition of computer scientists, voter groups and state officials, led by California's secretary of state, Kevin Shelley, is trying to force the makers of electronic voting machines to equip those machines with voter-verifiable paper trails."

"Following the problems of the 2000 election in Florida, a number of states and hundreds of counties rushed to dump their punch-card ballot systems and to buy the electronic touch screens."

"But in the past year, election analysts have documented so many malfunctions, including the disappearance of names from the ballot, and computer experts have shown that the machines are so vulnerable to hackers, that critics haved organized to counter the rush toward touch screens with a move to require paper trails. Paper trails -- ballot receipts -- would let voters verify that they cast their votes as they intended and let election officials conduct recounts in close races.

"Not everyone agrees that paper trails are necessary or even advisable. Numerous local election officials -- ones who actually conduct elections -- argue that paper trails could be worse than the problems that they are intended to cure. They warn of paper jams, voter confusion and delays in the voting booth while voters read their receipts."

"There are no national standards to help resolve the disputes. The federal commission that Congress created after 2000 to guide states is behind schedule, and the research body that was SUPPOSED TO TO SET STANDARDS FOR NOVEMBER 2004 has not even been appointed. So states, prompted by voter organizations, are taking matters in their own hands."

"California is requiring voter verified paper trails for any electronic machines that counties in the state buy after November, for this November, it has banned touch-screen machines unless counties meet certain security standards."

Three counties are suing the state to overturn the ban, and a fourth has said it plans to use the touch screens anyway."

Shelley said he was requiring counties to allow voters to vote on paper if they wanted to."

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So up to this time the voting we have done on touch screen machines has been open to hackers, with no way to verify that the vote is counted properly.

Seems to me that the opponents of the paper trail voting are people who have already approved or bought their vulnerable voting machines, who have raised some quite suspicious objections, it seems to me.

After all the uproar after the last elections, "the federal commission that Congress created after 2000 to guide states is behind schedule" and the research body that was supposed to set standards for November 2004 has not even been appointed." Makes me wonder if this next election will be phony also. Maybe Brer Bush will write out the rules after he steals the White House again.

Maybe electronic machines that print out paper trails is the answer. But I wonder what the hell was wrong by pesonally going to the polls, identifying yourself and being checked off as registered to vote and taking your blank ballot into the booth, making the proper marks and putting your ballot in the box ? Then the ballot boxes have to be kept from being stolen I know.

But the thought worries me that now our ballots are window dressing only and can disappear without A Trace . . . . . . . .

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