Electronic voting (e-voting) describes several different types of voting technology for vote casting and counting. According to Wikipedia, these types include punch cards, optical scan voting systems, and direct recording electronic (DRE) systems. One of the reasons for the movement to e-voting was the ability to more quickly count up the votes. DRE's are also more friendly to disabled voters. One example of this is in the provision of headphone and voice technology for blind voters. On the downside, many Americans are concerned that e-voting could invite or facilitate fraud.
These types of voting have almost completely replaced the hand-counted paper ballot. This has certainly led to faster election results, but not necessarily more efficient ones. With hardware and software failures, there is no knowing how many votes are counted incorrectly or not at all. Audits are impossible without some kind of paper ballot to count and verify. Many of the DRE's are not hooked up to printers which would provide this documentation of a voter's selections. Additionally, according to Lessig in Code 2.0, having a printed receipt may not necessarily prove that a vote was even counted. If e-voting is going to be the only voting there is in the future, Lessig hints that he would lean towards open code as his solution to the problem. The e-voting machine companies, such as Diebold, are against that idea as they feel their code is secret and also because they don't want to increase the chances that their code will be hacked.
This election, e-voting was a success. However, the race was not as close as it was the previous two elections. If that had been the case this time, who knows what problems would have surfaced, such as the 'hanging chad' fiasco. What if a recount needed to be done on a precinct that used DRE's? As mentioned before, the DRE's without printers do not provide a written confirmation of voter selections that can be audited after the fact. According to statistics gathered by the California Voter Foundation and the Verified Voting Foundation, use of DRE's has gone down 5% since the 2006 elections. Use of the Optical Scan has increased steadily, with a jump of 7% in the same time period (YubaNet.com). As a result of audit concerns, many states using DRE's have implemented the use of printers, but it is a process that takes time. According to Jeffrey Young of NewsVOA.com, adding this technology could be cost prohibitive for some smaller states and counties. The cost of the new equipment could reach millions of dollars.
Before this assignment, I never really thought about e-voting one way or the other. I went to the polls, filled out my ballot, and was on my way. However, things have changed. In our society of instant gratification, fast results are what people want. They don't want to wait a week or two while all the ballots are gathered and counted. I have to agree that it is nice to know who won within the same day, but what is the cost? Are we better off with the quick answer? Also, with the problems that occurred in the last two elections, have people become more mistrustful of the results? Something needs to be done to rebuild Americans' confidence in the election system. I believe it is up to election officials to ensure the accuracy and credibility of technological advances in voting options. They need to find a way to show us that every vote is being counted. With that being said, e-voting in should be used in future elections as long as efforts continue to correct identified problems.
References:
Alexander, K. & Smith, P. (2008). Verifying the Vote in 2008 Presidential Election Battleground States. Retrieved November 9, 2008 from http://yubanet.com/usa/Verifying-the-Vote-in-2008-Presidential-Election-Battleground-States.php
Lessig, L. (2006). Code 2.0. New York: Basic Books
Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_voting
Young, J. (2008). Observers Voice Concerns Over Electronic Voting for 2008 Presidential Race. Retrieved November 9, 2008 from http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2007-10/2007-10-29-voa37.cfm?CFID=63247370&CFTOKEN=77330201
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