The World Almanac and Book of Facts 2004 eBay for Dummies Fixing Elections: The Failure of America's Winner-Take-All Politics Too Close to Call : The Thirty-Six-Day Battle to Decide the 2000 Election Trial and Error: The Education of a Courtroom Lawyer Statistics and the Law The Miami Herald Report: Democracy Held Hostage The Unfinished Election of 2000 Deadlock: The Inside Story oF America's Closest Election

• NEWS RELEASE: 20 December 2000 -- Chads are Bad -- Analysis shows newer voting technologies are superior to punch cards.
• *** Originally released December 20, 2000 *** State Representative Doug Ericksen (Bellingham – District 42) will introduce legislation in the legislative session to end punch-card balloting in Washington State. This week, The Herald newspaper in Everett released their independent analysis of state voting data documenting the greater unreliability of punch-card ballots when compared with other voting methods. “The analysis of voting data clearly shows that the punch-card system is unreliable at unacceptable rates. Since better technology is already in use around the state, such as optical scanning machines, it is irresponsible for state officials not to act immediately to protect voting rights in Washington,” said Rep. ... The Herald analysis detailed election results from all 39 Washington counties and found: ** The 14 counties that use pre-scored punch cards, the most common kind of punch-card ballot, were more than twice as likely to register no valid vote for president. ... That equals more than 5,700 additional votes rejected in the punch-card counties. ** The same punch-card counties found no valid vote for the Senate race 2. ... That's more than 6,700 more rejects in punch-card counties for that race. ** The imbalance may put Washington Republicans at a disadvantage because punch-card counties tend to be more rural and more conservative. Republican Slade Gorton, who lost his re-election bid to the Senate by just 2,229 votes, won a majority in punch-card counties, as did President-elect George W. ... It’s time to pull our head out of the sand and take every necessary step to ensure accurate and reliable voting procedures in Washington State,” finished Rep.

• The law of politics and the politics of law: election law, the California recall, campaign finance, legislation, voting rights, initiatives, redistricting.
• Rick Hasen's web log « "FEC Backs Group's Campaign Money Plan" | Main | Preliminary statistics indicate higher error for punch cards in recall race » October 10, 2003.
• "Deal to End Punch Card Voting:Change in Ballot Seen by 2006".
• The Chicago Tribune offers this report (registration required) on a settlement of the Illinois punch card litigation. Readers of this blog will recall that earlier in the litigation, a federal district court held that the use of punch card voting in some parts of Illinois but not others constituted an equal protection violation under Bush v. ...
• Of course, what this settlement means is that punch cards will be used in the 2004 presidential election in Illinois, and the settlement would make it difficult for others to later sue to enjoin the use of punch cards in that election.

• 28  Electronic voting system ballot forms.
•   The commissioner of each county in which the use of an electronic voting system in one or more precincts has been authorized shall determine the arrangement of candidates' names and public questions upon the ballot or ballots used with the system. The ballot information, whether placed on the special paper ballot, the ballot card or the ballot label, shall be arranged as required by chapters 43 and 49, and by any relevant provisions of any statutes which specify the form of ballots for special elections, so far as possible within the constraints of the physical characteristics of the electronic voting system in use in that county. The state commissioner may adopt rules requiring a reasonable degree of uniformity among counties in arrangement of electronic voting system ballots. ...
•   Where voting is to occur by use of ballot cards, ballot labels and a voting punch device, the ballot labels must be arranged on or in the voting punch device in the places provided for that purpose. Voting squares may be before or after the names of candidates and statements of questions, and shall be of such size as is compatible with the type of electronic voting system in use in that county. ... Ballot cards shall be provided with tear-off stubs which shall be of a size suitable for the ballots or ballot cards used and for the requirements of the voting punch device. The ballots or ballot cards may contain special printed marks and holes as required for proper positioning and reading of the ballots by the automatic tabulating equipment. Where ballots or ballot cards are bound into pads, they may be bound at the top or bottom or at either side. ...

• 6 billion under which the states would receive millions of dollars to improve their voting and election systems. ...
• The Title of the bill is: "To establish a program to provide funds to States to replace punch card voting systems, to establish the Election Assistance Commission to assist in the administration of Federal elections and to otherwise provide assistance with the administration of certain Federal election laws and programs, to establish minimum election administration standards for States and units of local government with responsibility for the administration of Federal elections, and for other purposes. ...
•     Known as "The Help America Vote Act of 2001," the bill directs the Administrator of General Services (GSA) to establish programs under which the Administrator makes payments to each eligible State or local government to: (1) replace a punch card voting system with a voting system which does not use punch cards; or (2) make technical enhancements to the performance of its punch card voting system. ...
• 3295 establishes: (1) an independent Election Assistance Commission to serve as a national clearinghouse and resource for the compilation of information and review of procedures with respect to the administration of Federal elections; and (2) the Election Assistance Commission Standards Board and the Election Assistance Commission Board of Advisors to review any of the voluntary standards for engineering and procedural performance, for maintenance and enhancement of the accessibility and privacy of registration facilities, polling places, and voting methods, and for election management practices recommended by the Commission. ...
•     The bill also establishes the Technical Standards Development Committee to assist the Executive Director of the Commission by recommending standards to ensure the usability, accuracy, security, accessibility, and integrity of voting systems and voting equipment. ...
•     Under the bill, the Elections Assistance Commission is to: (1) provide for the testing, certification, decertification, and recertification of voting system hardware and software by accredited laboratories; (2) make payments to States for voting system improvements, grants to entities for voting equipment and technology research and development, and grants for pilot programs to try out new voting systems and equipment technologies; and (3) develop the Help America Vote College Program to encourage college students to assist State and local governments in election administration. ...
•     The bill sets forth provisions regarding voting rights of military members and overseas citizens and amends the Federal postal service law to replace reduced rates for voter registration purposes with reduced rates for official election mail. ...
•     Under the bill, states would get $650 million immediately, including $400 million so the states could immediately replace punch card voting systems. More than a third of American voters used a punch card machine last year, some federal officials claim. ...
•     The "Nev-Hoyer" bill also gives the states millions of dollars over the next three years to purchase new voting equipment, employ better trained poll inspectors and improve voter registration lists. Minimum standards for states are also established in the bill, including a statewide voter registration system and provisional voting. NYS already has provisional voting, i. ...

• STUDY: PUNCH CARD BALLOTS ERROR-PRONE, UNPOPULAR WITH VOTERS.
• COLUMBUS, Ohio - A 1998 study of 32 Ohio voters in a simulated election found that punch-card voting systems may produce error rates as high as 15 percent for some voters.
• Researchers videotaped test subjects who were instructed to vote for specific candidates and issues in a mock election using actual ballots and punch-card equipment. ...
• These results suggest that the problems reported by some voters who used punch cards in Palm Beach Florida last week are not unexpected.
• In interviews after the study, the majority of the subjects said they disliked the punch-card system, said Susan King Roth, author of the study and professor of industrial, interior and visual communication design at Ohio State University.
• Subjects had real concerns about the use of the punch card as a vote recording device," Roth said.
• These results suggest that the problems reported by some voters who used punch cards in Palm Beach Florida last week are not unexpected.
• The problems voters have with punch cards are inherent in the design of punch-card ballots and are not the result of inadequacies of the voters themselves," Roth said.
• The study, published in 1998 in Information Design Journal, was titled "Disenfranchised by design: voting systems and the election process. ...
• Subjects in the study complained that they weren't sure which hole to punch to correspond with the candidate or issue they were voting for, Roth said. ...
• "Error rates may vary somewhat, but punch cards have inherent flaws that make errors more likely," Roth said. "Overvoting or voting for more than one candidate is a known problem in punch card systems that regularly causes a certain percentage of ballots to be discarded. Punch card ballots should be replaced entirely with other systems, or at least redesigned to eliminate existing problems. ...

• Who Uses Punch-Card Ballots? .
• In the aftermath of the 2000 Presidential election and the disputed vote in Florida, a widespread perception emerged that the use of punch cards, and of antiquated voting machinery generally, is more common in counties with a greater percentage of minorities and poor people. But when Stephen Knack of the World Bank and Martha Kropf of the University of Missouri-Kansas City conducted a comprehensive statistical analysis of this issue, in a study titled "Who Uses Inferior voting Technology?" they found that conventional wisdom was wrong. ...
• In Florida and elsewhere larger, wealthier and more tax-rich counties are more likely to use punch card technology, and less likely to use electronic voting systems. ...
• In a majority of states in which some but not all counties use punch card technology, whites, the non-poor and Republican voters are actually more likely than African Americans, the poor and Democratic voters to live in punch card counties. ...
• Moreover, counties with punch card systems on average have higher personal incomes, higher tax revenues per capita and larger populations than counties with more modern voting technology. ...
• overall, black-white differences in punch card use are negligible: 31. ... 4 percent of African Americans live in counties using this voting technology. Hispanics are much more likely to live in punch card counties than either whites or blacks. ... 8 percent) are much more likely than whites (26 percent) to live in counties using either of the technologies for which overvoting is nearly impossible if machines are programmed correctly: electronic voting and lever machines. ...

• Punch Cards.
• Through the use of punch cards Hollerith devised a system through which data could be collated and used this equipment to win a competition to complete the 1890 census. ...
• The punch card has a rich and varied history (D. ... Lubar) in information processing but survives today in isolated applications such as voting booths and turn-pike toll receipts.
• During this era using the database meant using the information on the punch cards. This required an operator to load a stack of cards. Most of the cards contained the data in the database while some of the cards contained the search questions. The computers inhaled the data from the cards, ran the search cards, then printed out the result of the search. The card deck was generally unloaded to make room for another database of cards. ... To ask another question of the database meant preparing new search cards, then waiting for your turn in getting the operator to load your revised deck of punch cards with the new search strategy.
• The turn-around time for the "deck" to be reloaded, the small amount of information that a card could hold, and the system of protection required for the deck of cards created more than just new data. ... Punch cards became icons for the distancing role of technology, separating human beings from deeper more personal understandings of each other. ...

• ACLU Files CA Voting Rights Lawsuit, Saying Punch Cards .
• Belong in Junkyard, Not Voting Booth .
• LOS ANGELES - The American Civil Liberties Union affiliates of Northern California, San Diego and Southern California joined forces today to challenge the state’s flawed and discriminatory voting system. ...
• The lawsuit, filed in federal court, focuses on the disparities between counties using the now-notorious pre-scored punch card voting systems and those using other, more reliable systems. ...
• “The punch-card voting machines used in the November 2000 election belong in junkyards, not voting booths,” he added. “The estimated eight and a half million California voters in counties using punch-card machines have a better chance of having their preferences recorded on a lottery ticket than on an election ballot. ...
• Rosenbaum explained that pre-scored punch card machines are known to produce disproportionately high rates of two types of errors: under-voting and over-voting. In over-voting, the machine reads more than one vote, thus disqualifying the vote; in under-voting, the machine fails to read any vote. ...
• 4 percent of voters statewide - voted in the November 2000 election using a pre-scored punch card system, and over 132,000 of those votes were not counted or were counted inaccurately. ...
• Significantly, African American and Latino voters are much more likely to reside in one of the pre-scored-punch-card-using counties. ... 3 percent of white voters resided in counties using the substandard punch card systems, whereas 80. ...
• Unfortunately, that is not true in California today, thanks to outdated equipment which is the voting equivalent of a horse and buggy. ...
• The combined error rate for those counties using the pre-scored punch card averaged 2. 23 percent - more than twice the error rate for any other type of machine or system used in other California counties, and nearly four times the error rate of Riverside County's touch-screen voting machines. ...
• Nine California counties use one of two punch card systems, the Votomatic -- widely used in Florida -- and the Pollstar. African American and Latino voters are much more likely to reside in one of the pre-scored-punch-card-using counties. ...

• Recommendation to Eliminate Punch Cards Moves Forward to State Senate .
• PHOENIX -- Last month Secretary of State Betsey Bayless announced a proposal to eliminate antiquated punch card voting systems in Arizona. ...
• "The public no longer has confidence in punch card voting systems, and now we have a controversial election in Tuesday's Apache Junction mayoral race. The recent punch card problems in the Apache Junction election have demonstrated that we need to move quickly to eliminate punch card systems from Arizona elections," said Secretary Bayless. "With the United States Supreme Court strongly hinting that states update their voting systems, now is the time to move forward. ...
• Secretary Bayless is recommending legislation to eliminate the use of punch card voting systems in state and federal elections in Arizona for the 2002 election cycle. ...
• Prohibiting punch card voting systems in state and federal elections by the fall 2002 elections;.
• Changing to a uniform statewide voting system;.
• Currently, five Arizona counties use marksense optical scan voting equipment: Apache, Graham, Maricopa, Pima, and Yavapai. ...
• Ten counties still have punch card systems. ...
• 4 million in funding to the Secretary of State to conduct the procurement of marksense optical scan voting systems for Arizona’s 10 punch card counties.
• Authorizing the Secretary of State to apply for federal grants for matching funds for voting system improvements.
• 4 million Democracy Fund for voting equipment. ...

• Punch Card Voting.
• Artist's conception of a punch card ballot with a hanging chad. ...
• Saltman authored two publications that warned of technical problems with American voting technology: NBS Special Publication 500-30, Effective Use of Computing Technology in Vote-Tallying (1978) and NBS Special Publication 500-158, Integrity and Security in Computerized Vote-Tallying (1988).
• Of the many warnings in these publications, what in retrospect have proven the most prescient were Saltman’s warnings about pre-scored punch-card voting machines. ... He cautioned that punch card machines were hard to use and prone to error and that the ballot cards tended to cause computer jams owing to their tendency to absorb moisture. ...
• Saltman had previously shipped thousands of copies of his 1988 report to voting officials across the country, but it was largely ignored. ... When the close results from Florida in 2000 proved the truth of what had always been taught in civics class – that every vote counts – the failings of voting technology became of prime interest for the news media and the American voting public. ...
• Jim Drunknard, Holes in punch-card system noted long ago, USA Today, Jun. ...

• Implementation and Voting Schedule.
• Joint Elections: Early voting in person conducted using eSlate™ electronic voting equipment.
• Joint Elections: Election Day voting conducted using punch-card system.
• Joint Runoff Elections: Early voting in person conducted using eSlate™.
• Joint Runoff Elections: Election Day voting conducted using punch cards.
• Democrat and Republican Primary Elections: Early voting in person conducted using eSlate™.
• Democrat and Republican Primary Elections: Election Day voting conducted using punch cards. ...
• Democrat and Republican Primary Runoff Elections: Early voting in person conducted using eSlate™ and Election Day voting conducted using punch cards.
• General Election: Early voting in person using eSlate™.
• General Election: Full implementation of direct record electronic (DRE) voting in all Harris County polling places.

• VOTING SYSTEMS CHAPTER 121. ... The other titles of this code apply to an election in which a voting system is used except to the extent that a provision is inconsistent with this title or cannot feasibly be applied in an election using a voting system. ... The secretary of state may not have a pecuniary interest in the manufacturing or marketing of voting system equipment or software necessary for the operation of a voting system. ... In this title: (1) "Voting system" means a method of casting and processing votes that is designed to function wholly or partly by use of mechanical, electromechanical, or electronic apparatus and includes the procedures for casting and processing votes and the programs, operating manuals, tabulating cards, printouts, and other software necessary for the system's operation. (2) "Electronic voting system" means a voting system in which the ballots are automatically counted and the results automatically tabulated by use of electronically operated apparatus. (3) "Voting machine" means an apparatus on which voters cast their votes, that records each vote, and that furnishes a total of the number of votes cast for the candidates and for and against the measures. (4) "Mechanical voting machine" means a voting machine that is designed to function by the manual operation of a lever or other device on the machine without the aid of electrical power. (5) "Voting device" means an apparatus that is designed for use with punch-card ballots, that holds the punch-card ballot label, and that enables a voter to position the ballot for voting. (6) "Voting system equipment" means any kind of mechanical, electromechanical, or electronic apparatus for use in a voting system. (7) "Automatic tabulating equipment" means equipment, other than a voting machine, that compiles vote totals by ballot sorting, ballot reading, ballot scanning, or electronic data processing. (8) "Public counter" means a registering device that cumulatively records the number of voters casting votes on a voting machine and that is constructed and installed on the machine in a way that provides an unobstructed view of the recorded number.

• Re: ACLU uses touch screen industry data against punch cards.
• __Subject__: Re: ACLU uses touch screen industry data against punch cards .
• One of the arguments the ACLU used to file its > lawsuit was based upon the contention that the ''punch card > ballots are flawed and that minorities will be > disenfranchised. ... of State found the punchcard voting system to be "unnacceptable". ...
• ACLU uses touch screen industry data against punch cards, Auld Chiel .
• Re: ACLU uses touch screen industry data against punch cards, Roger Schlafly .

•   The court’s decree states that the recall election is unconstitutional until all of the state’s punch-card ballot machines have been replaced. ...
• The court’s ruling has yet again portrayed the punch card ballot as the enemy of democracy.   The court further argued that the punch card discriminates against poor voters because their counties may be unable to afford new equipment.   Enemies of the punch card have portrayed the ballot as a completely inaccurate system that is fraught with hanging chads.
• In reality, the punch card has proven to be a reliable method of voting that requires little effort to use properly.   Although punch cards have been used in elections since 1964, the basic technology dates back to Herman Hollerith’s census-tabulating machine from 1890.   Punch cards came into widespread use because they were far more cost-effective than the lever voting machines of the past.
• Like any system, there is always room for error when using the punch card.   But what does it take to screw up a punch-card ballot?  Having worked as an election judge, and having tested the punch cards to ensure that they worked properly, I can say that a voter must make a conscious effort to fowl up his or her ballot to result in a “hanging chad. ”  The voting stylus has to be jammed in the hole at an angle of forty-five degrees or more from vertical to cause the infamous “trap-door chad. ...   A voter-induced error in the voting process is indicative of a greater problem that would prevent the voter from making an educated decision at the polls.
• The biggest opportunity for error with the punch card is from absentee voters, who must punch their card after it has been mounted to a strip of Styrofoam.   Additionally, the mishandling of ballots by election officials may account for some voting anomalies. ...
• Although the punch card has come under heavy fire, very few people have faulted the new generation of touch-screen and optical-scan marker voting machines.   Perhaps it wasn’t reported in the mainstream media, but a Fall 2002 test of a touch-screen voting machine in Florida spit out the erroneous result that every voter who used the machine voted for Jeb Bush.
• The punch card remains an inexpensive tool for sustaining the democratic element of our representative government. ...   The cards remain popular because they are simple an effective. ...   Hopefully the full appeals court will rule in favor of the durable punch card and allow the voters of California to be heard.

• Punch Card Voting.
• Saltman authored two publications that warned of technical problems with American voting technology: NBS Special Publication 500-30, Effective Use of Computing Technology in Vote-Tallying (1978) and NBS Special Publication 500-158, Integrity and Security in Computerized Vote-Tallying (1988).
• Of the many warnings in these publications, what in retrospect have proven the most prescient were Saltman’s warnings about pre-scored punch-card voting machines. ... He cautioned that punch card machines were hard to use and prone to error and that the ballot cards tended to cause computer jams owing to their tendency to absorb moisture. ...
• Artist's conception of a punch card ballot with a hanging chad.
• Jim Drunknard, Holes in punch-card system noted long ago, USA Today, Jun. ...

• Editorial:  The Future of Voting.
• Though the governor's task force on elections has just begun its work, one recommendation is already sure to result: no more punch cards. ... " Governments no longer use punch cards for any other purpose. ...
• This lets the voter correct such mistakes as voting twice for one office. ...
• )Immediately provide precinct-based optical scanners to the 26 counties that still use punch cards, paper ballots or lever-operated voting machines. ... ) Commit Florida to touch-screen voting "before the end of this decade. ...
• Some counties would continue to use inferior optical-scanning systems that invite errors or lose votes nearly as often as punch cards do. ...
• He proposed a plausible compromise Tuesday under which the Division of Elections would decertify punch cards -- effectively prohibiting their further use -- and counties would be given state aid to help purchase new technology of their choice. ...
• Browning favors touch-screen voting, which requires no printed ballots except for write-ins and would lend itself best of all to replacing the second primary with an instant runoff in which voters simultaneously mark first and second choices. ...
• "If a plurality vote is sufficient for election in the general election," argued Iorio, who wants to be rid of the second primary "why is it not sufficient to achieve a party nomination?" It was a good question, but it raised a better one: Should any election ever be decided by less than a majority of those voting? Not if it can be helped. This should become one of the guiding principles that guides the task force as it looks into what improved voting technology can do. ...

• Punch card voting goes into history.
• One of the punch card machines, cards and a bag of chad take their place at the Tampa Bay History Center. ...
• Petersburg Times, published February 14, 2002 One of the punch card machines, cards and a bag of chad take their place at the Tampa Bay History Center.
• TAMPA -- The punch card voting machine is now officially history in Hillsborough County. ...
• Supervisor of Elections Pam Iorio on Wednesday donated one of the infamous machines to the Tampa Bay History Center, along with a bag full of chad and a stack of punch cards, to preserve for posterity. ...
• Missing is one of the old 700-pound lever machines that immediately predated the punch card machines. ...
• Iorio felt like holding on to one of the punch card voting machines was particularly important. ...
• "I think this is an opportunity for future generations to know how the electoral process worked and the role the punch card machine played. ...
• This year, Hillsborough voters will use touch-screen voting machines, which record their ballots electronically. Commissioners approved the purchase of the new machines for $12-million from California-based Sequoia Voting Systems. ...

• Figure 3—Punch Cards.
• (a)  Punch card ballot (without ballot stub) used in a Votomatic machine.
• (b)  Illustration of a section of a punch card ballot. ...
• Image Credits:  Figure 3a appeared originally in “A Brief Illustrated History of Voting” (http://www. ... edu/~jones/voting/pictures/) and is used with the permission of Douglas W. ...

• Voters in Virginia should know the same thing, and it all comes down to the type of voting system that's used, according to a new report by Stephen K. ...
• "Optical scan and, to a lesser extent, punch-card systems are clearly problematic," said Medvic. "Anyone wanting to implement op-scan voting systems statewide ought to rethink that course of action. ...
• On the other hand, electronic (or touch-screen) voting systems had low rejection rates. ... "But our voting systems ought to be nearly error-proof, and electronic systems are as close as we can get right now. ...
• According to the report, more than 21 percent of Virginia voters use electronic voting systems; an equal number use an op-scan system. ...
• - The best performing system was the electronic voting system (e. ...
• - Punch-card systems had an average rejection rate of 2. ...
• - While punch cards did not perform worse than electronic or mechanical systems, this method was no better than the optical scan system (again, statistically speaking). ...
• - When voting systems and demographic factors were analyzed simultaneously, the use of the optical scan system and the wealth of the jurisdiction were the two most significant predictors of the rejection rate. Race and the use of punch-cards were also predictors, but at a lower level of statistical confidence. ...
• - There were no clear patterns of voting system use, save for the use of mechanical systems in areas with relatively low median incomes and few college graduates. ...
• The report concludes that optical scan systems should be avoided (with the possible exception of those where votes were counted at the precinct as opposed to a central counting location), as should punch-card systems, particularly in jurisdictions with low incomes and few college graduates. Instead, it says Virginia localities should begin to adopt electronic voting systems. ...
• A breakdown of voting systems by locality can be found on the State Board of Elections Web site. ...

• VOTING – ELECTIONS EQUIPMENT.
• InPut equipment and methods: Keyboard, paper tape, punch cards, Mouse, floppy-disk, CD, Joy-Stick, Push-Button-Box, Scanner, Microphone, Touch-Screen, Network, Modem, FlashCards, SmartCards, Cable, WiFi (wireless).
• OutPut equipment and methods: punch cards, floppy-disk, CD, printer, screen, loudspeaker, Network, Modem, FlashCards, SmartCards, Cable, WiFi (wireless). ...
• Equipment For Voting:.
• At special Voting Places.
• Member, Whatcom Fair Voting.

• The 2000 ballot-counting controversies in Florida illustrate how antiquated our modes of voting are. Punch cards were the state of the art in the 1960s and 1970s, before the advent of computer terminals and personal computers. The fact that many states still employ this form of voting tells us how low a priority funding election reform is. ...
• Less educated and poorer Americans, some of the groups who already turnout to vote less than others, could be further discouraged from participation in elections if this became the means of voting. ...
• A second reason for not switching to Internet voting is ballot security. ...
• Despite these reasons, many groups still advocate Internet voting. One such organization is the Internet Voting Technology Alliance. ... Some websites also offer sample Internet voting systems and plans for implementing the process. ... To see their statement on the Internet voting, go to:www. ...
• Do you see the Internet as a device that will be used to sign petitions, vote on referendums, or even to cast votes for representatives? Will the possibility of voter fraud become more or less likely using Internet technology in the voting process?.

• Fraud potential found in e-voting systems.
• If ever there were an application where open-source software should be mandated by law, electronic voting has got to be it. The benefits of a simple user interface for a populace confounded by the intellectual demands of punch cards are obvious. ...
• The team examined unencrypted source code from the Diebold AccuVote-TS voting terminal which was recently posted on the Web, apparently leaked inadvertently by the company in an unprotected FTP directory. ...
• The cards are meant to be cancelled automatically as soon as a voter casts his ballot, but the system is easy circumvent with card programmer available for about $100, the researchers say. ...
• Similar undesirable modifications could be made by malevolent poll workers (or even maintenance staff) with access to the voting terminals before the start of an election," the paper says. ...
• "Furthermore, the protocols used when the voting terminals communicate with their home base, both to fetch election configuration information and to report final election results, do not use cryptographic techniques to authenticate the remote end of the connection nor do they check the integrity of the data in transit. Given that these voting terminals could communicate over insecure phone lines or even wireless Internet connections, even unsophisticated attackers can perform untraceable man-in-the-middle attacks. ...
• Election results can easily be skewed by voters and poll workers through smart-card tampering and access to administrative functions in the privacy of the voting booth; ballot choices can be altered by poll workers and supervisors; and, perhaps most worrisome, unauthorized machines running the Diebold software can easily authenticate themselves to the election authority. ...
• Because the smart cards communicate with the ballot terminal without encryption, reprogramming one is trivial. A dishonest voter "could program a smartcard to ignore the voting terminal's deactivation command. ...

• Highlights Problems with Punch Cards in National Hearing on Election Reform .
• SIMI VALLEY, CA - Oregon Secretary of State Bill Bradbury described the successes of Oregon's unique Vote-by-Mail system and reiterated his call to abolish punch cards in a hearing this morning at the Reagan Presidential Library. ...
• In his discussion at the hearing, Bradbury cited his office's recent analysis of punch card voting in the 2000 election.   His office compared the rate of "undervotes," or ballots with no vote counted for president, in the 7 counties that still use punch cards and to the rate of undervotes in the 29 counties that use other voting technology. ...
• The study found that the rate of undervotes was two percent in punch card counties and only one percent in optical scan counties. ...
• "Two percent may sound small, but it's still double the rate of undervotes in non-punch card counties.   We take that very seriously, since it means that the 40 percent of our voters who live in punch card counties may not have an equal opportunity for their voice to be heard," testified Bradbury. ...   For those reasons, I firmly believe that punch cards must be phased out in Oregon. ...
• Even with the problems of punch cards, however, Bradbury described Vote-by-Mail as a "pioneering system" and a "true success story. ...
•   14,270 of those undervotes occurred in punch card counties, which contain 40% of Oregon's voters.   By comparison, non-punch card counties, containing the remaining 60% of Oregon's voters, produced 10,977 undervotes. ...

• Debating Voting Issues, Representativeness, and Reforms.
• Davison, "Election 2000: Voting Issues and Recommendations," Insights on Law & Society 2. ...
• But the re-examination of the voting process didn't stop there: voter registration came under fire, as did other factors contributing to low voter turnout. ...
• Five Voting Technologies.
• See Map of Voting Technology Use; Table on Voting Equipment; and CalTech/MIT report on the effectiveness of voting technologies. ...
• Yet, when measured in air-time, certainly the greatest attention in Election 2000 was devoted to our voting technologies and what might be done to improve them. ...
• There are five categories of voting technologies that have been used in some degree during the past 25 years: paper ballots, mechanical lever machines, punch cards, optically scanned ballots, and "direct" recording electronic devices (DREs). Today, there is a movement toward the increased computerization of voting. Yet our earliest voting device, paper ballots, are still used by about 1 to 2 percent of voters, especially in small towns and rural areas. ...
• Nearly one-third of voting is done by punch card systems (Votomatic and Datavote). ... Voters vote by lining up and punching out the perforated rectangles (chads) on their cards that correspond to their choices. Punch card systems have unique counting problems because more than one chad can be punched, some chads fall off that aren't supposed to, and some stay on completely or partially that should have fallen off. A computer scores the cards by reading which holes are punched out, so that any chad irregularities throw off the counts. ...
• Which is the most reliable voting technology? Studies have found that hand-counted paper ballots and optically scanned ballots have had the lowest rates of loss since 1988. Punch-card systems consistently produce the highest rates of spoilage in presidential elections. In fact, nearly 18 percent of counties, comprising about 31 percent of the population, use the Votomatic punch card systems, which has been found to be the least reliable voting system. Researchers concluded that simply changing voting equipment, without any new technological innovations, will substantially lower the rates of votes lost because of equipment. ...

• Punch card ballots and the 1966 Georgia gubernatorial election.
• In each state holding a senatorial or gubernatorial election, Harris selected a “representative” sample of voting precincts--some 5,700 nationwide. ...
• Calloway’s support was strongest in the suburbs of Atlanta, particularly in DeKalb County, where a new computerized voting system from IBM was being used for the first time. The Votomatic used pre-perforated Hollerith cards placed into a flip-over template displaying the names of the candidates next to holes through which a voter would push a stylus to record his or her vote. Unlike voting machines and paper ballots, which can be read and tallied on the spot as soon as the polls close, the punch cards had to be collected from all the precincts and taken to a central mainframe computer to be tabulated.
• The deputies had no doubt been thoroughly instructed not to fold, spindle or mutilate the ballots, but it seems that no one had thought to warn them about the effects of moisture on punch cards.
• It would be days before the last of the punch cards was dry enough to be fed into the computer, and so no results from DeKalb County were included in the projections when CBS News called Lester Maddox the winner in Georgia that night.
• There have been many well-documented complaints about problems with punch card voting systems since then, but these have never had the high visibility they had in Florida in 2000 and have been largely ignored in the national press.
• Unlike punch card ballots, there were no questionable decisions to be made about hanging or dimpled chads, but had those ballots been counted, the outcome of the presidential election would have been different.
• Problems with computerized voting systems have sometimes led to vocal criticism from within the data processing profession, not so much because of difficulties with punch cards, but because many feel that such systems can never be made secure enough. ...
• We now see a rush of software and computer vendors hoping to capitalize on the sudden notoriety of the punch card ballot by proposing new (and, they hope, lucrative) high-tech alternatives, such as touch screens or online voting. ... In many ways, the technology for manipulating electronic voting is similar to that used for computer worms or Internet hacks and without a physical trail, there can be no possibility of a recount.
• Saltman, called urgently for the elimination of pre-scored punch card ballots such as those used in Florida in the 2000 election. ...
• You may also wish to read a fine essay by Lorrie Faith Cranor of AT&T describing drawbacks of various voting systems in light of the 2000 Florida election.

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