You’d think that Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey would break through the walls of politics and give voters the confidence that they are asking for. Many voters right now don’t trust government on both sides of the political aisle. I’m utterly and completely amazed by what goes on in our state capital.
Jeff Woods breaks it down for us:
It’s never been clear why Republicans are so bent on delaying this law. It would eliminate the hazards of paperless, unverified electronic voting. In Tennessee, 93 of 95 counties use touch-screen machines with no paper trail to verify results. The Voter Confidence Act calls for replacing these by the 2010 elections with paper ballots to be marked by voters and then read by optical scanners–a system allowing for recounts and audits of the actual tallies. Some county election commissioners are against making the change because they’d have to buy paper ballots.
So doesn’t it just make good old fashioned horse sense to take action on the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act? Why does Ramsey see this as a priority during the special session?
Common sense is to court voters, not create hurdles. I’ve said it before and I most likely will say it again, but why can I get a receipt at McDonald’s when I buy a Quarter Pounder and not one when I cast a vote for someone who can seriously change the world I live in politically? We have the knowledge to land a man on the moon, but a receipt or an option for a paper ballot for a vote is unheard of?
Common sense.
Did I mention that before?
You’d think someone running in a primary in seven months would think fairness and accuracy is of the utmost importance.
As a computer scientist, I’m all in favor of electronic voting as long as it meets two criteria: (1) the machines produce paper receipts of each ballot to allow for recounts and audits and (2) the software source code is published months prior to the election to allow computer scientists to test for software bugs and look for security vulnerabilities.
If the Tennessee government cannot agree to these two things, then I feel it is best to stick with paper voting.
It is so cool knowing a computer scientist.
I love that Hoots is in the house on this thread.
I’m not keen on receipts. They fly to the four winds and are not in the least recountable. It’s much more important to leave a persistent trace (and a paper ballot is a good one) of the vote in the hands of the vote-counters.
My town up here in Yankee-land uses optically scanned card stock ballots that can be filled out by hand or by machine. They’re pretty good even though the system is a Diebold product.