Do you trust voting machines that have no paper trail?

Answer 1

No. I have advocated from the first time that I voted on one that it should print out a marked ballot that could go into a box to provide an audit trail. The hardware costs would be trivial, as printers are dirt cheap nowadays.

Answer 2

No - people would not trust an ATM that never gave receipts either.

On the other hand, it is possible to make several of the voting machines for a precinct malfunction by misfeeding the paper so that it jams. In this way, votes in a precinct that votes heavily for your opponent can be reduced.

Outside of the precinct, this can be accomplished by sending defective paper rolls.

My motives in pointing this out is to show that we do not have a process in place for ensuring the vote with this new technology - we might as well be back to the days where partisans carried unlocked ballot boxes to the tallying site in their personal automobiles.

Answer 3

If you are talking of the new electronic machines that some areas are using, there is a paper trail of a sort, but it does not record who you are when you are voting - it only records the votes that are cast. It works the same as a cash register, recording what you enter - and there is a window that shows you exactly what you did at the time - if you want to change your mind, it shows that too. On our machines where I work the paper tape is on the left side of the monitor, enclosed behind glass. You are able to watch it as it moves along recording whatever you punch in, and then after you say you are done, it rolls up enough so that it is blank for the next voter to ensure your privacy. There is no way for the machine to record who is voting once you have passed through the qualification area (where your id is checked against a list of voters and your signature is compared as well). You can go to any of several machines. So if you are worried about a machine that could fail electronically after you have voted, no worries there. Also, each machine has a battery backup good for up to 4 hours in case of electricity failure, so there is no worry of it shutting down in midvote. And - an election supervisor must reset the machine each time before a new voter uses it, and collects a ticket from the voter on which bipartisan judges have initialed it, so that it proves that voter is allowed a ballot. Those tickets are numbered, but those numbers do not go into the machines - they are only for verifying the total voters against the software and hardcopy paper tape at the end of the day, as a triple check of the total. How do I know? I am a board of election supervisor, have been for many elections, and we have to take classes every season as well as each time the process is updated. When we changed over to electronic machines last time, it was an all day workshop covering machines and situations. The only thing you really have to watch for is if the machine is not accepting what you have entered - and you get 3 chances at the end to change each of your votes (actually you can do it as many times as you want while voting, but then the machine makes you confirm and reconfirm as you enter your entire ballot), so check and double-check your choices for any mistakes (some people think they have pushed in a spot, but they may have slid their finger down while pushing, or hit another choice with a fingernail, or it may need to be recalibrated if the wrong choice is showing - a simple procedure but that machine will be closed to voting until it is corrected and working properly.) And - your votes are not in stone until the last step in which you say yes you are totally satisfied with all your votes and push the last flashing button after it asks are you sure not once but twice. Make your vote count - or don't complain later on if you did not vote. (Yes it can come down to one vote for percentages, believe it or not!) (Oh, if you are worried that someone may see what you voted, the doors on the sides of the machine do move so that you can pull them in toward you thereby blocking anyone else's view.)

oohbother is wrong - you can not misfeed and jam a machine and then vote on it. There is a sensor that will not allow that to happen and we would simply either fix the tape and allow you to vote on the same machine or allow you to move to another machine instead. Your unfinished ballot would be voided, and you would start fresh regardless of which you chose to do. It saddens me to think that you all automatically assume we board of elections judges are out to get you or get our man in or whatever. We take an oath and in my precinct where I am supervisor, we have bipartisan teams, no one is allowed to even hint at who or what way to vote, and I am very strict about any campaigning - if there is an issue on the ballot or someone has some thing on their shirt that states a party or candidate - that person must leave and come back with either an inside out shirt to hide anything or a different shirt. All campaigning or talk of who the person is voting for is forbidden within 25 feet of the outside entrance to the building. We follow rules to the letter, and as I said the teams are made up of equal division of parties with 2 parties initialing everything. Both democratic and republican supervisors deliver the ballots (by downloaded cartridge and by those paper tapes) sealed in a bag to a deputy, who then records the number of the seal and it is guarded by another deputy until all are brought to the drop off point, then it all goes to the central location - which is also bipartisan. We must be totally neutral from opening to closing of polls, not even stating how many voters have gone through the line. (the voters know if they are smart, as they do get a number and that is all the number is - how many have been through our own line - but we are not allowed to say). We take an oath, and we abide by it.

Answer 4

Definitively NOOOOOO! How can you recount votes from a Machine Vote? How are you able assure no one tampered with the machine sofware. How can you monitor vote machines? PAPER TRAIL IS A GOOD WAY OF VERIFICATION. BUT THE MACHINE SOFWARE HAS TO BE MONITORED FOR ONLINE INTRUSSION AND BOGUS ALGORITHIMS.

Answer 5

I wouldn't distrust them simply because they leave no paper trail. It would depend on the details of the specific system and how secure it is.

Answer 6

Yes I do, I would be hesitant to use a machine that did leave a paper trail.

Answer 7

nope bad idea easy to cheat on voting.

Answer 8

NO
nor do I trust chad probems in the state which BUSH's brother governs............HHHHM MMMMMMMmmmmmmmm

Answer 9

Not one bit!!!! just look at 2004

Answer 10

It would be naive of me to say that I did.