"Is America Taking  Adequate Steps to Eliminate Voter Fraud in

Future Elections?"

Presented to the Minnesota Futurists

by David Keenanfor Hank Lederer

June 28, 2008

Agenda

• Watch DVD

Uncounted: The New Math of American Elections

• Discuss

Two Aspects

• Voters casting fraudulent votes (Input Problem)

• Deliberate miscounting of votes cast (Output Problem)

Historically• Large US cities had (and have) “political machines”• In order to remain employed (in well paid jobs) city

workers are required to generate votes in neighborhoods to which they are held responsible. They use all possible techniques to meet quotas.– Fabricated identities– Multiple votes by one person using these IDs– Miscounting by tabulators, etc.– Printing and marking counterfeit ballots– Paying people to vote

Some Problems

• With minimum identification required, non-citizens and non residents of a voting precinct are able to vote. These are “normally” a small ( < 5% ) fraction of the votes cast but could be crucial in close contests.

• A combination of fraudulently cast votes, lack of a paper trail in electronic voting systems, disqualifying voters in selectively applied or misapplied manner, destruction of ballots to avoid counting groups expected to vote against desired candidates, and other schemes and errors can result in subversion of the election process.

The Future of Elections and Technology

•The technology developed during the 20th century and first years of the 21st century, particularly computer technology, has in many ways dramatically altered election administration and the way in which elections are conducted.  While the basic election tasks of voter registration, voting and vote counting have conceptually remained the same since the beginnings of the modern democratic process, the organization of modern elections, nowadays, depend very much on technology.

•It can be expected that new technologies have the potential to continue to change the way in which elections are conducted through the 21st Century.

•While it is difficult to identify all changes that future technologies can bring to the organization of elections, some can already be predicted including:

The demise of the paper ballot

•Paper ballots have served the election process well.  They are relatively easy to produce, easy to mark and easy to count, but they can be quite expensive to print and distribute, they can only be used once, and they are not a particularly good use of resources. 

•Depending on the type of paper ballots used, they may not be considered the best method to record a vote and can be prone to fraudulent use such vote buying.

•Counting paper ballots manually, although relatively reliable can prove to be cumbersome and prone to errors which, in turn can result into the need for multiple counts of the same ballots. •The development of cheap, easily delivered, reusable, reliable electronic voting methods may gradually replace the paper ballot in many countries.

The demise of the polling place

• The physical polling place, that has to be rented, staffed and equipped, might become an expensive anachronism in many places where alternative and secure electronic delivery mechanisms can be used.  The move to offer government facilities on line, on the internet and in public places may replace the need to organize a physical voting place.

The rise of electronic voting methods

•  As electronic devices become cheaper, more powerful and more secure, it can be expected that the use of a variety of inexpensive, reliable electronic voting methods accelerates and become more widely used. 

E-Voting Machine by George Hernandez

Internet voting

• While security and identity concerns has lead to caution toward the use of Internet voting, many countries are considering it seriously, for at least some elections, not only to make it easier for the voter but also in an effort to boost voting, since the end of the 20th century witnessed a tendency for voter absenteeism.

• It can be expected that not before long these concerns can be answered and Internet voting will become safe, secure and widespread.  The potential of the Internet to change the dynamics of both the election process and the wider political process should not be underestimated.

Internet referendums and initiatives

• The widespread accessibility of the internet is already leading to the rise of so-called digital democracy, whereby ordinary citizens can vote directly on issues and legislative proposals. Many of these voting exercises are taken as indicative and not binding, but there are already some that are considered binding.  In this way voters can be expected to take control of the political process in a manner that was not feasible before.  Whether such tendency can turn out to be good for the democratic process is debatable. 

Progress?

Hacking Concern

Hacking Concern

Electronic identities

• Electronic identity systems are being developed to ensure that citizens can participate in the new electronic world of commerce and government.  As more and more daily activities such as paying bills and consulting bank accounts is done electronically, the need to secure reliable electronic identity systems pressure the development and implementation of country-wide and world-wide methods of uniquely identifying people by electronic means.

Electronic information delivery

• The 20th century has often been described as the information age.  Never before has so much information been readily accessible to ordinary people. It may be expected that the continuing development of the Internet and other electronic technologies leads to an ever increasing availability of information.

• This may have a profound impact on the democratic process as the opportunities for information dissemination and retrieval expand beyond the traditional methods dominated by mainstream media.  For election management bodies, the emerging electronic information service delivery methods can expand the options available for reaching voters and other clients with a wide range of information products.

Electronic service delivery

• In addition to the opportunities of electronic service delivery for the voting process and for the provision of information, many other services provided by election management bodies have the potential to be provided electronically.  Voter registration, political party registration, candidate nomination, disclosure of donations and expenditure, provision of expert advice, and other services provided by electoral authorities are already starting to be delivered electronically. 

Wireless electronic infrastructure

• The current technology uses might be regarded only fit to developed countries, but the first years of the 21st century have already witnessed an important advance on the use of new technologies by countries with weak infrastructures.  Notable among all is the opportunities open by the development of wireless electronic infrastructure, delivered by satellite, microwave or radio transmission, which is already enabling electronic service delivery in many remote locations. Combined with cheap, mass-produced electronic registration and voting devices, such wireless electronic delivery systems can be expected to be able to help electronic voting systems to reach any person, anywhere in the world.

Remote service delivery

•With electronic service delivery, there is no need for the service provider to be in the same suburb, city or even country as the user.  A scenario can be envisaged whereby a local election management body can locate  its office anywhere it is convenient for a variety of reasons and its services can be remotely delivered via Internet, wireless and satellite communications or by whatever new technology are invented to replace current technologies.

•It really is a brave new electoral world.

One Concept

Online Voting Concern

One Approach

Global e-Voting Experiments

Pennsylvania Example

States Dropping Out of the Electoral College

Jan 2008, both houses of the Illinois General Assembly passed a law that would enable IL to bypass the Electoral College in future presidential elections.

Jan 2008 New Jersey Governor John Corzine signed similar legislation that would eliminate NJ's participation in the Electoral College.

The only other state to have passed a similar law is Maryland, which was the first state to take up the cause.

Beginning in 2006, a nonprofit called National Popular Vote, Inc., launched a nationwide campaign to abolish the current Electoral College system.

A nifty aspect to this is that the process doesn't involve any sort of constitutional amendment. If it happens, change is going to be made entirely by the states.

With 21 electoral votes, Illinois would be the largest state to sign on, but the proposed NPV will only take effect if enough states to garner a majority of votes in the Electoral College (270 of 538) have passed the bill. A recent In These Times article, "NPV bills are expected to be introduced in all 50 states in 2008.“

Illinois as example of flaws in the current system. As a safe state for Democrats, both major party candidates ignore it. There is little motivation to campaign there since the winner in Illinois gets only 21 electoral votes and the loser gets nothing. As a result, Illinois voters play virtually no role in shaping the issues of the election.

Clean Up Polluted MN Lakes by Serving as an Election Judge?

Dear David,You can make a real difference by serving as an Election Judge:  Apply

Now before the July 1 Deadline!This fall voters are expected to break all records for turn out, election

judges are critical to making this election a positive experience for thousands of first time voters.   It is the job of election judges to make sure that voters understand the ballot, and understand that if voters skip the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment, the state will count them as a NO vote.

Help make sure that voters make their own choice.So volunteer now to be an Election Judge.  You can sign up on line.  To

make it easy email VoterhelpMN@aol.com with your name and address, and we will send you the link to your local online application.

This is a service of our partners at the Minnesota Environmental Partnership.

Deadline for responding: Submit your application by July 1.

Electronic Voting Companies

Sequoia Diebold Sequoia: AVC Edge - Introduction Diebold: AccuVote-TS Software Improvements MicroVote Sequoia Vote VoteHere

The 2008 Election Headlines from

http://members.autobahn.mb.ca/~het/terror_war/evote.html

• 2008/05/24: ThinkP: [Legal scholar Jeffery] Toobin Calls Voter ID Laws "A Clear Attempt By Republicans To Stop Democrats From Voting"

• 2008/05/08: Cryptome: Indiana's Incredible Shrinking Voter ListIn April 2008 when Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita announced the release of "record high" voter registration rolls, with 4.3 million voters set to vote in the Tuesday May 6 primary, he didn't mention that a whopping 1,134,427 voter registrations have been cancelled

• 2008/05/06: ThinkP: 12 nuns turned away from Indiana polls for lacking photo IDs • 2008/04/29: TPMM: Robo Call Gives False Voting Info to North Carolina Voters • 2008/04/28: ACSBlog: Supreme Court Rejects Challenge to Voter ID Law • 2008/04/25: ThinkP: House conservatives oppose bill that implements paper trail • 2008/03/23: PhysOrg: Americans still wary of voting machines for 2008 • 2008/03/19: FreedomToTinker: Evidence of New Jersey Election Discrepancies • 2007/08/29: TomPaine: Stealing The 2008 Vote • 2007/07/20: BoomanTrib: No National Voting Reform for 2008 • 2007/06/27: OVC: John Edwards Supports "Open Source" for Voting Systems • 2007/04/24: BuzzFlash: Karl Rove's Jim Crow Voter Suppression Machine is

Humming Along Just Fine, All Ready for 2008 • 2007/04/19: McClatchy: Campaign against alleged voter fraud fuels political tempest

Discussion

• "Is America Taking  Adequate Steps to Eliminate Voter Fraud in Future Elections?"

LinksIllinois may dropout of the Electoral College -

http://chicagoist.com/2008/01/15/electoral_colle.php Blog Presidential Election 2008 - preselection2008.blogspot.com/Touch Screen E-Voting www.lyco.org/LinkClick.aspx?link=200&tabid=36Future of e-voting Conferences www.e-voting.cc/ Georgia Tech – Internet voting (2001)

gtresearchnews.gatech.edu/newsrelease/VOTING.htmle-Voting Reciept – Wired Mag – Found Artifact from the Future -

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.11/images/1211Found800w.jpg Blog e-voting Concerns and Scandals www.bradblog.com/?cat=17e-Voting Resources www.autobahn.mb.ca/~het/terror_war/evote.html (scroll to

the 2008 Election section!)e-Voting paper A Better Ballot Box? by Rebecca Mercuri, Ph.D. (2002)

www.ejfi.org/Voting/Voting-106.htme-Voting humor from Freaking News

http://www.freakingnews.com/Voting-Machines-Pictures---173.asp World Experiments in e-Voting, Michelle Blanc, Montreal (2005)

http://www.michelleblanc.com/2005/11/04/experimentations-mondiales-en-votation-electronique-world-governmental-electronic-voting-experiments/