New Verifiable Voting Machine
Can Stop Computer Vote Fraud
By Christopher Bollyn
A revolutionary voting machine, the Vote-Trakker, which allows voters to
verify that their votes were counted correctly was demonstrated at the
Cannon House Office Building on April 25, the day the House
Administration Committee held hearings into election reform.
Developed by Avante International Technology, Inc. of Princeton
Junction, New Jersey, Vote-Trakker employs computerized touch-screen
voting and smart card technology to make voting easier and more
accurate.
The Vote-Trakker is a verifiable voting machine that was designed by
Kevin Chung, who saw the faults in the voting equipment currently in use
during the November election.
Chung is a designer and inventor who earned a bachelors degree in
physics and a Ph.D in material sciences from Rutgers University in New
Brunswick, New Jersey after immigrating from his native Hong Kong.
Chung became a naturalized American citizen in the early 80s.
The Vote-Trakker is a chad-less, data-secured, tamper-resistant, and
voter-friendly electronic election system that would greatly facilitate
voting and provide verifiability for voters at the precinct level while
reducing the risk of computer vote fraud.
Because it is a verifiable voting system that allows the voter to
confirm how his ballot was counted, Americans for Reform Committee is
promoting it as an improvement and alternative to the computerized and
modem-equipped ballot counting machines currently being used in much of
the country, which offer neither security nor verifiability.
PAPER TRAIL
The Vote-Trakker creates an audit trail that would restore voter
confidence and accountability in elections by removing any doubt about
how the votes were tabulated at the precinct level.
After the voter using this machine has checked and confirmed his votes,
the ballot is cast and the Vote-Trakker prints out a unique and randomly
numbered ballot receipt for the voter to keep, by which he can confirm
that his ballot was correctly counted by checking the publicly posted
official precinct results.
The publicly posted precinct results are printed in a row and column
table format with the 24-digit random ballot number in the first
column. The votes cast on each ballot would be displayed across that
row.
To prevent vote-buying and in order to protect ballot secrecy, the
ballot receipt can be printed with simply voted or not voted beneath
each office or proposition rather than having the actual candidates
names or choices selected by the voter printed out.
The Vote-Trakker is a stand-alone voting machine, which is not
connected to any external communication network to ensure security and
immunity from all potential outside electronic hacking and
interference.
This is quite unlike most of the computerized ballot counting machines
currently being used or proposed, which usually contain modem technology
and cellular telephony. Networked voting machines and the transmission
of election results through computer networks pose unacceptable risks of
hacking or computer vote fraud.
Avante is a company that specializes in smart-card technology, which
is employed in the Vote-Trakker. A smart-card contains information that
the computer reads. The voter inserts the precinct specific
smart-card into the machine, which tells the machine which jurisdiction
the voter is from and which ballot to present to the voter, specific to
his precinct and district level.
Because the Vote-Trakker can hold thousands of different localized
ballots, it would allow one machine to process voters from different
jurisdictions and different parties voting in one place, for example
during primaries on an aircraft carrier or at an American embassy.
However, the voter can simply enter his voter identifier number or
VID, which consists of six different segments to identify the voter's
residence, party affiliation, and personal identifier. This contains
the same information as the precinct supplied smart card. The VID tells
the machine the state, municipality, precinct, and district or ward of
the voter. Because it can also include information about the party to
which the voter belongs the Vote-Trakker can be used in party primaries.
The Vote-Trakker removes the possibility of under- and over-voted
ballots from being cast by presenting the voter with the options to
contest candidates, abstain, and write-in his or her choices. This is
superior to much of the voting equipment currently in use, such as the
Precinct Ballot Counter 2100 manufactured by Election Systems and
Software of Omaha, which has been challenged by the Illinois state Board
of Elections precisely because of its inability to correctly identify
both under- and over-votes on the same ballot.
The touch-screen of the Vote-Trakker displays a large and easy-to-use
keyboard for writing in names and entering information while voting and
offers a simplified Braille keyboard and optional voice assistance for
visually impaired voters.
Americans for Reform Committee presented information about the
Vote-Trakker and the need for verifiability in computer ballot-counting
systems to the nine members of the House Administration Committee, which
is working on proposed election reform legislation.
Florida's Secretary of State, Katherine Harris, told the House committee
that Florida was resolved to set a national standard and create a
national model. ARC presented Harris with information about the need
for verifiable computer voting after the hearing, and hand-delivered a
letter and information packet on the Vote-Trakker system to her office
in Tallahassee as well as to the committees of the Florida legislature
that are working on election reform for the state.
Because Harris has proposed using unverifiable electronic voting systems
such as optical scanners in 2002, and paperless touch screen voting
machines in 2004, ARC considers in important for her and the election
authorities in Florida to be aware of verifiable voting equipment such
as the Vote-Trakker.
What is wrong with paper ballots, hand counted by each poll station officer in front of party scrutineers. After the count the ballots are sealed in an envelope and the count reported. I think I would have more faith in a hand count. We know there was massive fraud (like some 3rd world country election) last November, and not just in Florida either as Gore and his fellow travellers did every thing they could to rig the election.
