It's clear that a verifiable, auditable voting trail for all US elections is crucial. It's equally clear that Kossacks have already decided it's one of their primary goals for the next two years.
This morning, a freind sent me the following link to verified voting, an organiztion working toward that very end.
And, joy of joys, the software used for this tracking project is open source.
Here's a post on sourceforge
From the Verified Voting website:
ELECTRONIC MISCOUNTS OF VOTES
ARE A FACT - NOT A THEORY
Technologists warn that electronic voting machines are flawed. They say we should "trust but verify." Others disagree. For example Florida's Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Theresa LePore counters technologists' analysis of electronic voting machine flaws with her claim: "It's just a bunch of lies." But Broward County is now unable to comply with Florida law because of the flaws technologists, Congressman Robert Wexler (D-FL), and many others have pointed out!
Many people are very troubled by the use of uncertified software in recent California elections. Many are concerned about the backgrounds of some programmers and managers who control the secret voting machine software.
Our primary concern is the threat that unverifiable electronic voting poses to elections in the United States. We have been concerned that without a paper record verified by the voter, there would be no way of knowing whether votes were recorded accurately and no way to do a meaningful recount if one is necessary.
Now we are seeing these predicted problems occurring in real elections. We are seeing election results that will remain forever in dispute because an audit was impossible. We are seeing that electronic miscounts of votes is no longer a theory - it's a fact.
What if the miscounts we know of are only the tip of an undetected iceberg of electronic miscounts? They might be. We have no way of knowing.
Let's pass H.R.2239/S.2437.
Here's the House version of the
bill, and the
senate version. It's been referred to committee, where it will likely die (but that's just my guess.)
And a website showing how technology is being used to track voting irregularities:
The Election Incident Reporting System
If anyone knows of other sites, legislative efforts -- both national and state -- to track voting problems and to reform voting systems, please post them so that we have a comprehensive list.