Daily Camera editorial mentioning touchscreens

[Paul Walmsley <paul@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

The Daily Camera on Sunday ran this editorial mentioning touchscreens.  I 
would encourage anyone disappointed by the article to write them a letter.

<http://www.dailycamera.com/bdc/editorials/article/0,1713,BDC_2489_2411667,00.html>


- Paul


Snail balloting

County makes the best of a flawed system

November 9, 2003

Once upon a time, Americans with a sense of civic duty happily toddled 
over to their neighborhood polling place to have their small, but crucial, 
say in how government would run.

But now, we've been told, that requires too much effort. Given the steady 
decline of voter turnout, especially in local and state elections, many 
analysts concluded that voting just wasn't convenient enough.

Maybe people did get "too busy." Then again, when average Americans spend 
four hours in front of their televisions every day, maybe it's just a 
matter of priorities. These days, it seems, everything must be delivered 
to us like a pepperoni pizza.

Nevertheless, the era of "convenient" voting is here. In Boulder County, 
as in many other places, that means mail balloting. In off-year elections 
we now have ballots sent to our homes, where we can fill them out, affix 
proper postage, and send them in (or drop off at postage-free sites). 
Voters must still rise off the couch in Congressional election years.

The upshot in Boulder County has been a significant increase in voter 
turnout. In 2001, 46 percent of voters cast ballots, up from just 25 
percent in 1999, the last pre-mail ballot, off-year election. Last week, 
57 percent of county voters turned in ballots.

That's good news. But mail balloting still leaves a lot of people 
dissatisfied. Security remains a worry when many hands \x{2014} from scads 
of postal workers to county staff and election judges \x{2014} touch your 
ballot. Some voters have been surprised to learn that, for whatever 
reason, their ballot never arrived to be counted. Logistical issues, such 
as confusion over postage, have plagued some voters. And it's no cheaper 
than traditional elections.

Considering all that, the Boulder County Clerk and Recorder's Office made 
a yeoman's effort to minimize problems this year. It pushed to get voters' 
signatures on file. Then, unlike some counties that tallied the vote 
without verifying even half the signatures, Boulder County verified every 
one. Up to 6,000 signatures had to be verified by hand, instead of by 
scanning devices (because the signatures were not on record).

This county also used a two-person system to open and handle the ballots, 
in an attempt to ensure that no person saw both the identity of a voter 
and how he or she voted.

That resulted in a molasses-slow count, which didn't conclude until late 
Thursday night.

We'll take security over speed any time. But it's worth noting that with 
the old system \x{2014} Boulder County long used a surprisingly reliable 
"punch-card" system; no "chad" problems here \x{2014} we didn't have to 
sacrifice speed for security. And remember, you could always vote by mail, 
by absentee ballot.

Now, get ready for even more changes. After Florida fiasco of 2000, 
Congress passed the Help America Vote Act to supposedly stave off future 
snafus. Every county in the nation must adopt new technology by next year, 
including touch-screen computer voting at every precinct.

As elections become high-tech affairs, fewer average citizens will have 
the know-how to monitor them. Most fifth graders can count paper ballots, 
but few of us could audit software. In other words, the purity of every 
election will rest with a few skilled technicians. That's a little 
unsettling.

By mid-December, Boulder County should have selected its new voting 
system, after a long vetting process. The new machines \x{2014} probably 
touch-screens \x{2014} will be in use next fall.

This isn't the place for an analysis of concerns about touch-screen 
systems. We trust officials to choose the best system, but they must 
ensure maximum accountability.

In the meantime, there's this (thin) silver lining: Just maybe, with a 
slick, new e-voting system, we'll chuck the hassles of mail balloting, and 
voters will just have to reach out and touch some screen.