.FLYINGHEAD VOTING SECURITY
.TITLE Is voting security in Florida still a problem?
.AUTHOR David Gewirtz
.SUMMARY Today is Election Day here in the United States. As a registered voter, I did my duty and went down to my local polling place, and cast my vote. It was, without a doubt, the most disturbing voting experience I’ve ever had. In particular, we had issues of both inappropriate electioneering and a complete lack of privacy. Our interest here at Computing Unplugged was initially the touchscreen machines, since this is a computing technology that touches on our coverage areas. However, we’re also interested in the optical-scan systems, since they, too, are managed by computers and computing technology.
.FEATURE
Here at Computing Unplugged Magazine, one of our editorial mandates is to examine technological issues as they affect society as a whole. This summer, we subjected the obscure technology of broadband-over-powerline to an in-depth analysis, bringing in discussions by both proponents and opponents, resulting in the most in-depth analysis of the issue ever published.
.CALLOUT It was, without a doubt, the most disturbing voting experience I’ve ever had.
Back in the year 2000, you may recall the presidential elections here in the United States resulted in a virtual tie, with the election outcome finally being decided by the United States Supreme Court. While part of the problem could be attributed to an almost perfectly divided electorate, the bulk of the problem revolved around poor voting mechanisms and procedures.
.TEASER To read about our experiences voting in Florida and the wild violations of privacy rights, tap here.
The outgrowth of this was the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA), which was designed to improve on the security and reliability of voting practices. HAVA required or helped states to replace outdated voting equipment and establish voter registration databases. The Associated Press reports:
.QUOTE 32 percent of registered voters were using equipment added since the 2004 elections. Nearly half of all voters were using optical-scan systems that ask them to fill in blanks, with ballots then fed into a computer. 38 percent were casting votes on touchscreen machines that have been criticized as susceptible to hackers.
Our interest here at Computing Unplugged was initially the touchscreen machines, since this is a computing technology that touches on our coverage areas. However, we’re also interested in the optical-scan systems, since they, too, are managed by computers and computing technology.
Today is Election Day here in the United States. As a registered voter, I did my duty and went down to my local polling place, and cast my vote. It was, without a doubt, the most disturbing voting experience I’ve ever had. In particular, we had issues of both inappropriate electioneering and a complete lack of privacy.
Before I discuss it, I need to explain something. I’m doing my very best to describe the voting experience here without touching on any partisan issues. I’m human, so I do have an opinion, but from an editorial perspective, it’s not appropriate for me to advocate, discuss, or even side with one party or another, or one issue or another.
I’m writing this before any election returns are available, so I also won’t be able to comment on the outcome.
My primary focus in this article is the state of voting in America and how my personal experiences today may be indicative of the overall voting situation. The sanctity of voting is an issue that concerns all Americans (and, frankly, all citizens of the world) and should not be a partisan issue.
Remember, if today one side gets an unfair advantage and you don’t mind because you’re on that side, there’s always the chance the other side will get the advantage in a future election. We want to be sure that neither side ever has an unfair advantage.
.CALLOUT There was absolutely no privacy in this polling place.
Today was also my first voting experience in Florida. Given Florida’s history and reputation with voting, I was very curious about what I’d encounter.
Voting in my district took place in the town’s city hall complex. As I parked, I encountered the first electioneering situation, which you can see in Figure A.
.FIGPAIR A Regardless of what side you’re on, electioneering doesn’t belong in a polling place.
Regardless of what side you’re on, electioneering doesn’t belong in a polling place. This gentleman and his table were literally in the parking lot of the polling place, inside the actual city hall complex. You can see the official "Vote" sign, pointing the arrow toward the door, right next to him. It’s maybe ten paces to the entrance to the voting room.
Now, before about half of you go off and send me email because you think I’m opposed to this man’s politics, it’s not about that. I’d be just as concerned if a more "liberal" issue was being advocated. No electioneering should take place right outside the polling place.
My actual voting location was inside the town hall’s council chambers. And it was here, in a very crowded room, that I noticed the second example of electioneering. It’s shown in Figure B, although it’s hard to make out.
.FIGPAIR B There’s a yellow ribbon hanging over the polling place.
We’ve purposely blurred the voters in the image, and, of course, this is from a camera phone, so the image quality is pretty bad. But the sign showed a large yellow ribbon with the phrase "We support you". On the surface, this is a very benign sign. Some of my closest friends are in Iraq and Afganistan and I certainly support them and hope fervently for their safe return.
But there is no doubt the war is a very heated issue and the yellow ribbon symbolizes a certain perspective on this issue that might be interpreted to have a partisan position. I honestly think its sweet that my town council chamber has such a banner hanging over it, but it’s not appropriate for a voting location.
I’m not even sure this was purposeful electioneering. It may simply have been a sign left up from regular business. But while such a sign is fine 364 days a year, on Election Day, it should have been taken down.
By the way, we’re reasonably sure it’s ok for us to publish the images of the polling place. We’ve checked a variety of other news sources, such as CBS News, and they all have pictures of polling places. However, we are making sure you can’t see individual voters, having blurred out their faces in order to respect their right to privacy.
Which brings us to my main concern: there was absolutely no privacy in this polling place.
I’m not a lawyer and given we’re publishing this article real-time, we don’t have the time to consult a constitutional authority. However, I’m reasonably sure that I remember my civics classes and one of the things we were taught is how important it is to be able to cast a ballot in privacy.
Gone are voting booths with the curtains that close around you, allowing you to make your choice in private. Instead, at least in my district, we were given a paper form where we had to fill in the circles to vote. I stood in line for about 45 minutes to get my form. First, the nice old lady couldn’t find the precinct register. They were being swapped among voting officials like chips at a poker table. Normal enough for voting day, I guess.
Finally, I got my form and went to one of the little voting tables that were arrayed against the wa11. There were about 50 of these tables, some of which you can see in Figure C.
.FIGPAIR C Voting should not be done as a team sport.
First, most of the voting tables weren’t as isolated as those in the picture. There were voting tables arrayed right next to the lines of voters. I didn’t take that picture because I didn’t want to have to shoot directly at voters’ faces. The form was large enough that it didn’t fit in the space in the table, so as you filled in the lower part of the form, the upper part rose up against the back of the table, visible for everyone to see.
There was no privacy between individuals. While there were small dividers, it was very easy for someone ot look into a voting table and see what a voter was coding. And, further, as you can see in Figure C above, some of the votes were cast by committee. In addition to the parent/child groups you can see in the photo, there were groups of two or three adults all crowding into a voting table, chatting it up about how they were voting.
Once you’ve filled in your voting form, you need to turn it in and have it scanned. This was where the most egregious privacy violation took place — and it’s also where technology meets this story.
To illustrate this, you’ll have to look at Figure D. And, to protect the privacy of the woman who was violating all our privacy, I’ve had to doctor the image a bit. Take a look at the image, and then I’ll explain.
.FIGPAIR D The voting official looked at every single ballot cast.
The voting official looked at every single ballot cast. Because there were candidates and issues listed on both sides of the ballot, no matter which way you turned your ballot, the nice lady in the picture was able to see the votes. And she did. That woman watched every single form like a hawk, and then looked at each voter’s face, lingering on each face for a good three or four seconds.
I am not a paranoid person, so I doubt she remembers what I voted for, or even that I was there. And I live in a very nice town with very nice citizens. But not everyone in America is as lucky as I am. Not everyone in America is as large or lifts weights like I do, so others likely intimidate a lot more easily than I do.
And, if you live in an area where there’s the possibility that your vote could cause a disagreement, or where you rely on your freedom to cast a private ballot, you might run into some serious difficulty. Here in America, voting is considered to be our most sacred right. Privacy is mentioned nine separate times in the Helping Americans Vote Act. And yet, there was no privacy.
All Americans need to be concerned about voting problems, and as good Americans, we all need to work together to fix them. Here at Computing Unplugged Magazine, we’ll be watching out for other technology-related voting issues, and we’ll be following this issue for the next few years, at least through the presidential elections in 2008.
If you’ve got a voting issue to report, please send it to editor@computingunplugged.com. Please, please, leave politics out of your letters. We’re concerned with voting security as an issue, not who or what you vote for.
.BEGIN_SIDEBAR
.H1 Product availability and resources
For more information on the Helping America Vote Act, you can read it at http://www.fec.gov/hava/law_ext.txt.
.END_SIDEBAR
.BIO
