Fairness, transparency are the most important considerations

[kster]

02/13/2007

Robin Lind's letter from last week, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," argues for electronic voting machines.

His letter details the problems and efforts of election officials, and if expense and convenience were the primary concerns, I'm sure his would be the final word.

My primary concern is fairness and transparency in the balloting process. Mr. Lind fails to address this concern with any seriousness, so let me suggest three desirable characteristics of a balloting system.

1. Ballots should clearly record voter intent.

2. Ballots should be human-readable.

3. Ballots should be physical artifacts.

I'll expand on each of these, and then discuss how well electronic voting machines implement each.

Ballots should clearly record voter intent. A ballot should to the greatest extent possible be a record of the selections made by the voter. As a goal, this assertion is both intuitively obvious and deceptively difficult to implement.

http://www.timescommunity.com/site/tab2.cfm?newsid=17847413&BRD=2553&PAG=461&dept_id=506071&rfi=6