Is America Taking

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"Is America Taking  Adequate Steps to Eliminate
Voter Fraud in Future Elections?"

• Presented to the
• Minnesota Futurists
• by David Keenan
• for Hank Lederer
• June 28, 2008

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Agenda

• Watch DVD
• Uncounted The New Math of American
  Elections
• Discuss

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Two Aspects

• Voters casting fraudulent votes
  (Input Problem)
• Deliberate miscounting of votes cast (Output
  Problem)

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Historically

• Large US cities had (and have) political
  machines
• In order to remain employed (in well paid jobs)
  city workers are required to generate votes in
  neighborhoods to which they are held responsible.
  They use all possible techniques to meet quotas.
• Fabricated identities
• Multiple votes by one person using these IDs
• Miscounting by tabulators, etc.
• Printing and marking counterfeit ballots
• Paying people to vote

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Some Problems

• With minimum identification required,
  non-citizens and non residents of a voting
  precinct are able to vote. These are normally
  a small ( lt 5 ) fraction of the votes cast but
  could be crucial in close contests.
• A combination of fraudulently cast votes, lack of
  a paper trail in electronic voting systems,
  disqualifying voters in selectively applied or
  misapplied manner, destruction of ballots to
  avoid counting groups expected to vote against
  desired candidates, and other schemes and errors
  can result in subversion of the election process.

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The Future of Elections and Technology

• The technology developed during the 20th century
  and first years of the 21st century, particularly
  computer technology, has in many ways
  dramatically altered election administration and
  the way in which elections are conducted.  While
  the basic election tasks of voter registration,
  voting and vote counting have conceptually
  remained the same since the beginnings of the
  modern democratic process, the organization of
  modern elections, nowadays, depend very much on
  technology.
• It can be expected that new technologies have the
  potential to continue to change the way in which
  elections are conducted through the 21st Century.
• While it is difficult to identify all changes
  that future technologies can bring to the
  organization of elections, some can already be
  predicted including

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The demise of the paper ballot

• Paper ballots have served the election process
  well.  They are relatively easy to produce, easy
  to mark and easy to count, but they can be quite
  expensive to print and distribute, they can only
  be used once, and they are not a particularly
  good use of resources. 
• Depending on the type of paper ballots used, they
  may not be considered the best method to record a
  vote and can be prone to fraudulent use such vote
  buying.
• Counting paper ballots manually, although
  relatively reliable can prove to be cumbersome
  and prone to errors which, in turn can result
  into the need for multiple counts of the same
  ballots.
• The development of cheap, easily delivered,
  reusable, reliable electronic voting methods may
  gradually replace the paper ballot
  in many countries.

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The demise of the polling place

• The physical polling place, that has to be
  rented, staffed and equipped, might become an
  expensive anachronism in many places where
  alternative and secure electronic delivery
  mechanisms can be used.  The move to offer
  government facilities on line, on the internet
  and in public places may replace the need to
  organize a physical voting place.

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The rise of electronic voting methods

•  As electronic devices become cheaper, more
  powerful and more secure, it can be expected that
  the use of a variety of inexpensive, reliable
  electronic voting methods accelerates and become
  more widely used. 

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E-Voting Machine
by George Hernandez
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Internet voting

• While security and identity concerns has lead to
  caution toward the use of Internet voting, many
  countries are considering it seriously, for at
  least some elections, not only to make it easier
  for the voter but also in an effort to boost
  voting, since the end of the 20th century
  witnessed a tendency for voter absenteeism.
• It can be expected that not before long these
  concerns can be answered and Internet voting will
  become safe, secure and widespread.  The
  potential of the Internet to change the dynamics
  of both the election process and the wider
  political process should not be underestimated.

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Internet referendums and initiatives

• The widespread accessibility of the internet is
  already leading to the rise of so-called digital
  democracy, whereby ordinary citizens can vote
  directly on issues and legislative proposals.
  Many of these voting exercises are taken as
  indicative and not binding, but there are already
  some that are considered binding.  In this way
  voters can be expected to take control of the
  political process in a manner that was
  not feasible before.  Whether such tendency can
  turn out to be good for the democratic process is
  debatable. 

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Progress?
14
Hacking Concern
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Hacking Concern
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Electronic identities

• Electronic identity systems are being developed
  to ensure that citizens can participate in the
  new electronic world of commerce and government. 
  As more and more daily activities such as paying
  bills and consulting bank accounts is done
  electronically, the need to secure reliable
  electronic identity systems pressure the
  development and implementation of country-wide
  and world-wide methods of uniquely identifying
  people by electronic means.

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Electronic information delivery

• The 20th century has often been described as the
  information age.  Never before has so much
  information been readily accessible to ordinary
  people. It may be expected that the continuing
  development of the Internet and other electronic
  technologies leads to an ever increasing
  availability of information.
• This may have a profound impact on the democratic
  process as the opportunities for information
  dissemination and retrieval expand beyond the
  traditional methods dominated by mainstream
  media.  For election management bodies, the
  emerging electronic information service delivery
  methods can expand the options available for
  reaching voters and other clients with a wide
  range of information products.

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Electronic service delivery

• In addition to the opportunities of electronic
  service delivery for the voting process and for
  the provision of information, many other services
  provided by election management bodies have the
  potential to be provided electronically.  Voter
  registration, political party registration,
  candidate nomination, disclosure of donations and
  expenditure, provision of expert advice, and
  other services provided by electoral authorities
  are already starting to be delivered electronicall
  y. 

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Wireless electronic infrastructure

• The current technology uses might be regarded
  only fit to developed countries, but the first
  years of the 21st century have already witnessed
  an important advance on the use of new
  technologies by countries with weak
  infrastructures.  Notable among all is the
  opportunities open by the development of wireless
  electronic infrastructure, delivered by
  satellite, microwave or radio transmission, which
  is already enabling electronic service delivery
  in many remote locations. Combined with cheap,
  mass-produced electronic registration and voting
  devices, such wireless electronic delivery
  systems can be expected to be able to help
  electronic voting systems to reach any person,
  anywhere in the world.

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Remote service delivery

• With electronic service delivery, there is no
  need for the service provider to be in the same
  suburb, city or even country as the user.  A
  scenario can be envisaged whereby a local
  election management body can locate  its office
  anywhere it is convenient for a variety of
  reasons and its services can be remotely
  delivered via Internet, wireless and satellite
  communications or by whatever new technology are
  invented to replace current technologies.
• It really is a brave new electoral world.

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One Concept
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(No Transcript)
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Online Voting Concern
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One Approach
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(No Transcript)
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Global e-Voting Experiments
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Pennsylvania Example
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States Dropping Out of the
Electoral College

• Jan 2008, both houses of the Illinois General
  Assembly passed a law that
  would
  enable IL to bypass the Electoral College in
  future presidential elections.
• Jan 2008 New Jersey Governor John Corzine signed
  similar legislation that
  would eliminate NJ's
  participation in the Electoral College.
• The only other state to have passed a similar law
  is Maryland, which was the
  first state to take up the cause.
• Beginning in 2006, a nonprofit called National
  Popular Vote, Inc.,
  launched
  a nationwide campaign to abolish the current
  Electoral College system.
• A nifty aspect to this is that the process
  doesn't involve any sort of constitutional
  amendment. If it happens, change is going to be
  made entirely by the states.
• With 21 electoral votes, Illinois would be the
  largest state to sign on, but the proposed NPV
  will only take effect if enough states to garner
  a majority of votes in the Electoral College (270
  of 538) have passed the bill. A recent In These
  Times article, "NPV bills are expected to be
  introduced in all 50 states in 2008.
• Illinois as example of flaws in the current
  system. As a safe state for Democrats, both major
  party candidates ignore it. There is little
  motivation to campaign there since the winner in
  Illinois gets only 21 electoral votes and the
  loser gets nothing. As a result, Illinois voters
  play virtually no role in shaping the issues of
  the election.

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Clean Up Polluted MN Lakes by Serving as an
Election Judge?

• Dear David,
• You can make a real difference by serving as an
  Election Judge  Apply Now before the July 1
  Deadline!
• This fall voters are expected to break all
  records for turn out, election judges are
  critical to making this election a positive
  experience for thousands of first time voters.  
  It is the job of election judges to make sure
  that voters understand the ballot, and understand
  that if voters skip the Clean Water, Land and
  Legacy Amendment, the state will count them as a
  NO vote.
• Help make sure that voters make their own choice.
• So volunteer now to be an Election Judge.  You
  can sign up on line.  To make it easy email
  VoterhelpMN_at_aol.com with your name and address,
  and we will send you the link to your local
  online application.
• This is a service of our partners at the
  Minnesota Environmental Partnership.
• Deadline for responding Submit your application
  by July 1.

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Electronic Voting Companies

• Sequoia
• Diebold
• Sequoia AVC Edge - Introduction
• Diebold AccuVote-TS
• Software Improvements
• MicroVote
• Sequoia Vote
• VoteHere

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The 2008 Election Headlines from
http//members.autobahn.mb.ca/het/terror_war/evot
e.html

• 2008/05/24 ThinkP Legal scholar Jeffery
  Toobin Calls Voter ID Laws "A Clear Attempt By
  Republicans To Stop Democrats From Voting"
• 2008/05/08 Cryptome Indiana's Incredible
  Shrinking Voter ListIn April 2008 when Indiana
  Secretary of State Todd Rokita announced the
  release of "record high" voter registration
  rolls, with 4.3 million voters set to vote in the
  Tuesday May 6 primary, he didn't mention that a
  whopping 1,134,427 voter registrations have been
  cancelled
• 2008/05/06 ThinkP 12 nuns turned away from
  Indiana polls for lacking photo IDs
• 2008/04/29 TPMM Robo Call Gives False Voting
  Info to North Carolina Voters
• 2008/04/28 ACSBlog Supreme Court Rejects
  Challenge to Voter ID Law
• 2008/04/25 ThinkP House conservatives oppose
  bill that implements paper trail
• 2008/03/23 PhysOrg Americans still wary of
  voting machines for 2008
• 2008/03/19 FreedomToTinker Evidence of New
  Jersey Election Discrepancies
• 2007/08/29 TomPaine Stealing The 2008 Vote
• 2007/07/20 BoomanTrib No National Voting Reform
  for 2008
• 2007/06/27 OVC John Edwards Supports "Open
  Source" for Voting Systems
• 2007/04/24 BuzzFlash Karl Rove's Jim Crow Voter
  Suppression Machine is Humming Along Just Fine,
  All Ready for 2008
• 2007/04/19 McClatchy Campaign against alleged
  voter fraud fuels political tempest

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Discussion

• "Is America Taking  Adequate Steps to Eliminate
  Voter Fraud in Future Elections?"

35
Links

• Illinois may dropout of the Electoral College -
  http//chicagoist.com/2008/01/15/electoral_colle.p
  hp
• Blog Presidential Election 2008 -
  preselection2008.blogspot.com/
• Touch Screen E-Voting www.lyco.org/LinkClick.aspx?
  link200tabid36
• Future of e-voting Conferences www.e-voting.cc/
• Georgia Tech Internet voting (2001)
  gtresearchnews.gatech.edu/newsrelease/VOTING.html
• e-Voting Reciept Wired Mag Found Artifact
  from the Future - http//www.wired.com/wired/archi
  ve/12.11/images/1211Found800w.jpg
• Blog e-voting Concerns and Scandals
  www.bradblog.com/?cat17
• e-Voting Resources www.autobahn.mb.ca/het/terror_
  war/evote.html (scroll to the 2008 Election
  section!)
• e-Voting paper A Better Ballot Box? by Rebecca
  Mercuri, Ph.D. (2002) www.ejfi.org/Voting/Voting-1
  06.htm
• e-Voting humor from Freaking News
  http//www.freakingnews.com/Voting-Machines-Pictur
  es---173.asp
• World Experiments in e-Voting, Michelle Blanc,
  Montreal (2005) http//www.michelleblanc.com/2005/
  11/04/experimentations-mondiales-en-votation-elect
  ronique-world-governmental-electronic-voting-exper
  iments/