Headline, May10, 2013

'''LAS VEGAS EXPERTISE 

-VERSUS-

 COMPUTER SCIENTISTS​'''

So,  at the time, as the true tale goes, the number of those who felt very concerned about the security of D.R.E's grew to more than 1600. That's how many professional Technologists signed the Resolution on Electronic Voting drawn up by Stanford Professor David Dill.

''We have the authors of the most widely read books on computer security,'' Dill said, ''lots of experts from major universities, in addition to  systems managers. At that last count we had more than 200 Ph.D, computer scientists.'' 

Bev Harris, for one, felt that paper trail is just the start. Having paper ballots in a locked box, she noted would solve nothing if the hacker accomplished the easy trick of having a D.R.E tip a small percentage of one candidate's votes into the other's column without changing the total number of votes cast.

Who would know that an outcome of 52-48 should have been 48-52? And so no call would come for a paper recount.

At heart the problem is not just a technological one, which could be solved by better encryption code or an add-on printer for paper ballots. It's that the whole system of voting need to be audited, like any set of books in a business   -or like slot machines in a ''casino''.

''The very first thing we need to do is get solid input from auditors who are experienced in fraud detection,'' Harris believed.

''When it comes to setting up effective auditing for these systems, bookkeepers from Las Vegas have a much better expertise than computer scientists from Princeton.''

David Dill, the Stanford computer expert militating against D.R.E's recommends optical-scan machines. These too are electronic, but they use a paper ballot. Former national Democratic Party chairman, however, disagreed.

Andrews is something of an anomaly: a Democrat who staunchly defended the touch-screen machines. He argued that for all the problems and controversies, D.R.E's have a far lower error rate,overall, than any other kind of machine. Optical scans had an error rate of about 6%, while the punch card error rate was about 4 percent and and lever machines had 1%.

Back then, and in those years, there was a feeling that with luck, perhaps, America will put its fear to rest, and future elections will be tabulated as smoothly as A.T.M's dispense money. But that's what worried Doug Jones the most:

''If I were a crook intent on stealing an election,'' said the Iowa Expert on  Computer Security,'' I wouldn't steal it using a technology which was still controversial. And i wouldn't be interested in a technology being used by only 5% of the voters, I would wait until that technology was being used by 65 to 80% of the voters and was no longer controversial, until it was so entrenched that voters felt that they had no choice.

That's when I'd go in and steal an election!!

''And if I were competent? Without a paper trail? I'd leave no tracks!!''

This is really overwhelming!

But to tell you what great people are made of : Bev Harris is a sterling example. All through this ordeal,  and by that  year's late fall, she and her husband had run through their savings and couldn't afford the $500 needed to fix a broken furnace.In her unheated home, Harris sat at her computer wrapped in an electric blanket.

With respectful dedication :  ''World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless'' and Sam Daily Times, The voice of the Voiceless.

Good Night & God Bless!

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless