Re: BBV update

[Nicholas Bernstein <bernsten@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Tom, Ralph, et al.

Don't throw the baby out with the bath water. We are all rightfully 
worried about the integrity of electronic vote counting/marking systems. 
But our distrust should be directed towards the private companies that 
do not offer full disclosure of their code -- not towards the concept, 
which is elegant and implementable.

As I mentioned in my lengthy response to Kellen, computers are far more 
reliable than people when it comes to simple arithmatic. If humans are 
to provide the final (or only) say when it comes to the final results, I 
 want to be able to trust them at least as much as I trust my 
calculator. The fact that we NEED recounts only belies how imprecise 
human counting is. If a human count provides a different result than a 
computer count,  the burden of proof lies with the humans to show where 
the computer went wrong. Unless this can be done, humans are the more 
likely culprit.

The beauty of an open source electronic solution is that IT COULD 
ACTUALLY SAVE MONEY over a paper-based solution. There is no need to buy 
expensive equipment such as optical scanners or even punch card readers. 
A personal computer with a printer (such as you already find at the 
public library) would be it. A voter-verifiable list obviates the need 
to do statistical samples. Our government doesn't need to pay for any of 
this. There are thousands of talented coders out there who would 
volunteer to write code for free.

Lastly, I'm tired of hearing the same old refrain "computer systems are 
notoriously insecure." These worms and viruses we hear so much about, 
you know who they are hitting -- Microsoft. Hackers are making a point 
about how terribly insecure Microsoft's operating system is. Yes, there 
are breakins on Linux/Unix based systems, but they are on a much smaller 
scale. Partly because these system admins keep a tighter ship than 
normal folks, but also because the minute a bug is detected, some open 
source guru in Illinois, Burma, or Kreplachistan is writing a patch. Not 
so for Microsoft. Like any private company with proprietary code, they 
have limited ability to quickly fix bugs.

Nick