VVPAT

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WHAT IS VVPAT?

An add-on to electronic voting machines that allows voters to get a printed version of their ballot.

Like a printed receipt

COMMON PROBLEMS

Increases the cost of electronic voting systems• Not an effective check on malfunction or fraud because most voters

aren’t required to look at it

Difficult to use because of the external hardware Hiring technicians Educating voters and poll-workers

SECURITY PROBLEMS

Malicious software code can be put into the VVPAT to misrecord the voters’ selections

The printer could invalidate a new ballot once the voter leaves and print a new fraudulent ballot

VVPAT can print when the voter isn’t observing the paper trail “Ballot stuffing” Hard to differentiate between fraudulent and real ballots

PRIVACY CONCERNS

Ohio case in 2007

Disabled and blind voters are at a disadvantage because they are unable to identify their ballot on their own

COSTS

In Orange County, the cost of the VVPAT is $12,121,875 and the cost of the whole system including the voting machines and installation is $40,333,366.83.

In King County, New York the cost of the VVPAT is $660,000. This caused the county to spend $11.3 million on the election. This cost included the machine maintenance, manual recounts, and general election costs.

STATISTICS

In Georgia, the installation and use of the VVPAT only increased the voter confidence from 86.9% to 89.4%.

As of 2008, only 19 states required at least some ballots to be recounted

10% of the VVPAT spools are unreadable or missing

19% of the spools reported discrepancies