RE: Hand Recounts of votes recorded on DREs

["Pete Klammer" <pklammer@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

A "hand recount" of paperless DRE votes is patently absurd, meaningless, and
futile.

Yes, you may be able to cause the DREs to make some post-election printouts
which might then be counted by hand; but this misses the point of recounting
entirely.

Among very many other things, a hand count is an opportunity for fresh human
interpretation of voters' intents.  That would only be available from a DRE
which could record and replay a movie-like video record of all presses and
touches and taps during a voting session -- it would look like a shadow play
of silhouettes: grape-sized finger and thumb presses, thin crescents of
fingernails, jangly criss-crosses of jewelry and charm bracelets, and big
egg-sized shadows of heels or palms of possibly both hands.  But I know of
no touch-screen technology capable even of sensing such a full-face record.

Legislatures have also ruled that PI is exactly 3-1/7 and other idiocies, so
just because some state has a statute describing or requiring a "hand
recount of DRE votes" doesn't make it the least bit less oxymoronic.

--
Pete Klammer, P.E. / ACM(1970), IEEE(SA,P1583), ICCP(CCP), NSPE(PE)
   3200 Routt Street / Wheat Ridge, Colorado 80033-5452
 (303)233-9485 / Fax:(303)274-6182 / Mailto:PKlammer@xxxxxxx
   "Either Be Good, or Else Be Careful, but Do Have Fun! "
 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-stds-1583-tg1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
> [mailto:owner-stds-1583-tg1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of 
> Arthur Keller
> Sent: Sunday, December 05, 2004 4:35 PM
> To: stds-1583-stg3@xxxxxxxx; stds-1583-disc@xxxxxxxx; 
> stds-1583-tg1@xxxxxxxx; stds-1583-tg2@xxxxxxxx
> Subject: Hand Recounts of votes recorded on DREs
> 
> Currently, Washington State is engaged in a hand recount in the race
> for governor.  Some of the counties in Washington State use DREs.
> What specifications are there in the IEEE P1583 drafts for a standard
> for extracting Cast Vote Records from each of the individual DREs,
> including obtaining each of the various copies of each Cast Vote
> Record on each of the DREs, in the absence of an AVVPAT for each DRE?
> What support is there for auditing DREs in the absence of an AVVPAT
> for each DRE?  It seems to me that there should be a requirement for
> being able to extract all of the Cast Vote Records from each of the
> DREs, including the various copies of each of these CVRs, in order to
> support hand recounts.
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> Arthur
> 
> --
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> -----------------
> Arthur M. Keller,  Visiting Associate Professor, Computer 
> Science Dept.
> University of California, Baskin School of Engineering, Room 153B,
> 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA  95066-1077
> tel +1(831)459-1485, fax +1(831)459-4829, www.soe.ucsc.edu/~ark
>