
A computer scientist who prefers voting on paper - fanf2
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/12/guardian-of-the-vote/544155/?single_page=true
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specialist
Barbara Simons is a hero. I have huge respect for Verified Voting as well as
the Election Verification Network. They played the long game, engaged all
parties. Whereas me and mine flamed out early, treating this as a sprint
instead of a marathon.

She relates how hard is to convey to policy makers that we computer people are
the most skeptical of electronic voting. I've been there too. Testifying in
opposition to vendors, administrators, disability advocates, veterans, etc. I
was called a sweaty, paranoid kook (in the press) for trying to explain how
our elections actually work (per the regulations). I was depicted as the bad
guy trying to take away other people's right to vote.

Maybe now we've grown up a bit, shedding some of the rampant technophilia of
the last few decades.

Knowing what I know now, the bigger threats to election integrity are change
and profit motive.

The worst part of HAVA and its undoing has been the disruptive change. No one
really let any thing settle long enough to know what's going on. Provisional
ballots, new identification requirements, new gear, new voter intent
standards, etc. Maybe some of it was progress. But all of it was rushed,
causing disruption and confusion.

The big driver for all this change is profit motive. The vendors have outsized
influence on our election administration. Now the big push is towards postal
balloting, requiring a complete retooling, with even more services to be
bought.

I have just one criticism of election integrity activists: We don't advocate
for the stupid simple things which would actually improve matters. In order:

1 - Replace winner takes all elections, where 1 vote difference can change the
outcome, with approval voting and proportional representation, which are far
more robust in the face of errors.

2 - Universal voter registration. No more fighting over who's eligible to
vote. Like every other mature democracy.

3 - Citizen owned software and processes. Demote vendors back to being just
service companies, instead of being in charge.

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davidfarmer
Current discussion:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15676452](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15676452)

Barbara Simons: The Computer Scientist Who Prefers Paper Voting
(theatlantic.com)

