Hawaii's Office of Elections is still bound by an injunction issued by Maui Judge Joseph E. Cardoza in Babson v. Cronin that prevents it from purchasing electronic voting equipment for the 2010 election until administrative rules are in place. A primary objective of the lawsuit was to prevent Hawaii's election system from falling victim to the so-called "man-in-the-middle" attack which can "flip" votes without anyone's knowledge.
The lead plaintiff in the case, Robert Babson, released a list of recommendations today for new lawmaking to improve Hawaii's election process.
Hidden in the details was a disturbing revelation: ballots cast in the 2008 elections were each photographed including a ballot number that can be traced back to the voter. If this is correct, then Hawaii's voting was not secret, a constitutional violation.
Bob explains:
In 2008, there was a number on the ballot and a different number on the detachable part of the ballot handed to the voter. But the election vendor who designed the system and ordered the ballots could easily know both numbers. The number on the detachable part was written down by election volunteers when voters signed in. Thus, election officials could later see this number and trace it to the ballot and learn how voters voted. This was especially easy because in 2008, "marksense" was not used but instead "digital ballot imaging" (see "terminology" at the end of this letter) was used where every ballot was photographed and made into a ".jpg" which showed the number on the ballot making it easy to see who voters voted for. This absolutely violates the constitutional right of all voters to vote anonymously.
As I understand it, in prior elections, to find out how someone voted, the paper ballot would have to be located, a time-consuming task. Once the ballots were destroyed, no vote could be traced. Now each vote is recorded in a computer file along with its identifying number. It is impossible to demonstrate that no copy of the computer file has been made or that all copies have been destroyed.
Of course, the same situation might hold in other states where this type of ballot scanner is used. What about your state? Is your vote secret?